Ten Worst Iraq War Memoirs

Ricks is an idiot. You guys are too nice to say it, I guess, but there it is. "FIASCO" is alright but his agenda comes through so clearly that I couldn't take it seriously.

This list is like Michael Bay making a list of the worst action movies. Physician, heal thyself.

RH,

Here's a study conducted by the CRS (Congressional Recearch Service) Report for Congress in 2004 on the CPA (Coalition Provisional Authority) that you may find interesting.

http://www.fas.org/man/crs/RL32370.pdf

One argument for all the confusion is the lack of time taking to properly plan out the organizational structure prior to execution. Amoung other things.

Mike

Of all the books written...and Rick's books are some of the best....no one seems to know who ordered the disbandment of the Iraqi Army..nor the termination of the entire Iraqi civilian infrastructure.

The result of these two horrific "strategic" decision led Iraq into a protracted insurgency that we all know could of been avoided.

Although, I did not read Bremer's book...so far..no one on his staff can validated who or where the orders(s) came from...

Iraq/2005;Afgh/2003;HOA/2002 &2008

It would be better to look a little further back in time, back before March 2003, and make a list of the 10 worst books or articles that pushed for the invasion of Iraq.

If there was no invasion, Sassaman would not have been chucking Iraqis into rivers. My first two would be ..

1. Ken Pollock, "The Threatening Storm: The Casse for Invading Iraq."

2. Jeffrey Goldberg's 7 page New Yorker article that outlined Saddam's close working realationship with AQ.

Ricks probably would not be interested in this list, it would upset his buddy Eliot Cohen too much.

Schmedlap said it better than I did.

It is about the popular Coin kids and the loser kids who have been judged to not get it and are then put on the D-list.

Is there any doubt, based on this list, what Ricks will have to say for example if General Casey ever writes his memoirs?

Personally I dont think I would be any good at memoir writing. If i ever did try my hand at them it wouldn't be for another ten or twenty years.

Anyway I am too busy debating the history of the Vietnam War with Ken White on SWJ.

gian

I'm starting to hope that the memoire by Gian Gentile is called, "The Comeback."

I remain convinced that this is the year of Gentile, Steve Metz, and Bernard Finel.

I'm just saying.

His picks are directly related to his ideology of the war and in that sense are unfair.

Nate Sassaman's memoirs, if the reader can get past the unsavory parts where he condemns his chain of command and fellow commanders, is actually quite good and is one of the better memoirs of the early years of the war from the ground, combat perspective. It is honest in the way it portrays a battalion's fight in the first year of the war. But since Ricks has placed Sassaman in his "loser" category it clouds his ability to read that memoir objectively and fairly. If you were a loser in either of Ricks's two books then you automatically made his hit list here, regardless of the actual quality of the memoir.

I would not put much salt in this list.

gian

Ricks can come off as arrogant but I like 90% of what he has to say.

Be that as it may, or may not be Schmedlap, Ricks is on target with his list, including the author that leads it off.