The secret history of the Iraq war / Yossef Bodansky.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bodansky, Yossef.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Iraq War, 2003-2011.

Physical Description:

570 pages ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : ReganBooks, [2004]

Summary:

In the months leading up to March 2003, fresh from its swift and heady victory in Afghanistan, the Bush administration mobilized the United States armed forces to overthrow the government of Iraq. Eight months after the president declared an end to major combat operations, Saddam Hussein was captured in a farmhouse in Al-Dawr. And yet neither peace nor democracy has taken hold in Iraq; instead the country has plunged into terrorist insurgency and guerrilla warfare, with no end in sight.

What went wrong?

In The Secret History of the Iraq War, bestselling author Yossef Bodansky offers an astonishing new account of the war and its aftermath -- a war that was doomed from the start, he argues, by the massive and systemic failures of the American intelligence community. Drawing back the curtain of politicized debate, Bodansky -- a longtime expert and director of the Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare -- reveals that nearly every aspect of America's conflict with Iraq has been misunderstood, in both the court of public opinion and the White House itself.

Drawing upon an extraordinary wealth of previously untapped intelligence and regional sources, The Secret History of the Iraq War presents the most detailed, fascinating, and convincing account of the most controversial war of our times -- and offers a sobering indictment of an intelligence system that failed the White House, the American military, and the people of the Middle East.

Contents:

1 Early Steps

The Loss of Deterrence 13

2 The Gathering Storm 34

3 Casus Belli 51

4 Advance Preparations 85

5 End Run 113

6 The Die Is Cast 137

7 The Race to Baghdad, Part 1 163

8 The Race to Baghdad, Part 2 186

9 The Race to Baghdad, Part 3 213

10 The Real War Begins 242

11 The Shiite Factor and the Launch of Jihad 266

12 The Ascent of Iran and the Return of Osama bin Laden 292

13 Disastrous Diversion 314

14 Only the Beginning 338

15 Into the Cauldron 366

16 The Iran Factor 389

17 The Historic Transformation 416

18 Beyond the Ramadan Offensive 441

19 Endgame 468

Notes: The Historical Record 531.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0060736798

OCLC:

54959753