The Iraq War

An excellent, old-school military history of the invasion of Iraq by (mostly American and British) Coalition forces. The best part is Keegan's detached, even-handed account of Iraq's history and the runup to the war. Of course, the main part of the "war" now, is thought of as the several years long occupation and insurgency. But, Iraq is mostly surviving, whilst Afghanistan now (2024) is the chaotic hellhole. Excellent for what it is, though most readers who remember the time will probably be expecting the post-2003 insurgency and occupation stuff, the protests, the hatred of Bush and Blair. But, that's not what the book is. It's about the history, run-up, and toppling of Saddam's dictatorship: that's it.

Decent description of the State of Iraq, just not what I expected from the title. Development of the origins of the country of Iraq from the demise of the Ottoman Empire, development of the rise of Saadam, and description of Gulf War I and II. But I was more interested in the decision making process of how we ended up going to war, what was really known, and by whom, and when, more than hearing about which brigade and which regiment from the U.S. or Great Britian was assigned to a particular sector, and how each handled their specific mini-assignments in the execution of the war. No criticism of the book itself, but it just wasn't what I was expecting, or looking for.

I join those who were sorely disappointed. Mr. Keegan has been a most inspiring, insightful writer about war and wars. It is very sad that he presents such a biased and superficial view of this one. Was he such a friend of Gen Franks he could not address his immense failures at all?? He is usually quite easy to understand and read around his biases and enjoy his books, but this was so bad, I quit struggling 2/3s of the way through. I read the newspapers, I've talked with vets, I knew better. What did people miss to give this a five? Were they born after the war?

I started out loving this book as the author gave a (way too) quick overview of the history of power in Iraq/Middle East and how a basically lowly streetkid Saddam Hussein became The Saddam Hussein. Then it got to the story of the contemporary Iraq War and, while it sorta sounded alright, there started to be more and more items that I remember reading about during the war that were either incorrectly explained during the war or incorrectly explained in this book. I don't know enough about the "real Iraq war" to know whether the old versions were right or these were but some things just didn't jive at all. I guess this book is yet another way to look at the war but I can't say that I really felt the book was honest and true in all things.

Weak

Teleurstellend en mogelijk te snel geschreven boek over de Irak-oorlog. Lees verder....