Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq (2006) is a book by Washington Post Pentagon

United States Department of Defense

The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...

 correspondent Thomas E. Ricks. Fiasco deals with the history of the Iraq War from the planning phase to combat operations to 2006 and argues that the war was badly planned and executed. Ricks based the book in part on interviews with military personnel involved in the planning and execution of the war. In 2009 Ricks published a sequel The Gamble: General David Petraeus and the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006-2008.

Brief Summary

The book alleges that the planning of the Iraq war was mismanaged by both the Bush administration as well as the U.S. Army. Ricks then goes on to outline the infighting between the senior policy advisers such as Colin Powell

Colin Powell

Colin Luther Powell is an American statesman and a retired four-star general in the United States Army. He was the 65th United States Secretary of State, serving under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005. He was the first African American to serve in that position. During his military...

, Paul Wolfowitz

Paul Wolfowitz

Paul Dundes Wolfowitz is a former United States Ambassador to Indonesia, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense, President of the World Bank, and former dean of the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University...

, Donald Rumsfeld

Donald Rumsfeld

Donald Henry Rumsfeld is an American politician and businessman. Rumsfeld served as the 13th Secretary of Defense from 1975 to 1977 under President Gerald Ford, and as the 21st Secretary of Defense from 2001 to 2006 under President George W. Bush. He is both the youngest and the oldest person to...

 and the Army. Ricks includes quotes from former generals of the Iraq war, former Army generals, and several top level officials, both working for the Bush administration and Douglas Feith

Douglas Feith

Douglas J. Feith served as the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy for United States President George W. Bush from July 2001 until August 2005. His official responsibilities included the formulation of defense planning guidance and forces policy, United States Department of Defense relations...

's planning contingent. Moving into the war, Ricks alleges various miscommunication and mismanagement of the Army's combat tactics as well as criticizing the overall strategy. Ricks also heavily criticizes the actions of L. Paul Bremer

L. Paul Bremer

Lewis Paul "Jerry" Bremer III is an American diplomat. He is most notable for being the U.S. Administrator to Iraq charged with overseeing the country's occupation after the 2003 invasion. In his role as head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, he reported primarily to the U.S. Secretary of...

 and explores his impact as head of the Coalition Provisional Authority

Coalition Provisional Authority

The Coalition Provisional Authority was established as a transitional government following the invasion of Iraq by the United States and its allies, members of the Multi-National Force – Iraq which was formed to oust the government of Saddam Hussein in 2003...

.

Quotes from Fiasco

– Thomas Ricks, Fiasco

– Mohammed Abdullah (Baghdad citizen quoted by Ricks in Fiasco)

External links

• New York Times Book Review of Fiasco
• Harvard Crimson Review of Fiasco
• Weekly Standard Review of Fiasco
• Interview with Thomas Ricks at the Pritzker Military Library
  Pritzker Military Library
  The Pritzker Military Library is a research library for the study of military history in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded in 2003 by COL James N. Pritzker, IL ARNG to be a non-partisan institution for the study of "the citizen soldier as an essential element for the preservation of...