The Gamble: General Petraeus and the Untold Story of the American Surge in Iraq, 2006 - 2008

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Underscoring his new and unorthodox approach, three of his key advisers are quirky foreigners—an Australian infantryman-turned- anthropologist, an antimilitary British woman who is an expert in the Middle East, and a Mennonite-educated Palestinian pacifist. The Gamble offers news-breaking account, revealing behind-the-scenes disagreements between top commanders. We learn that almost every single officer in the chain of command fought the surge.

That same boss later flew to Iraq to try to talk Petraeus out of his planned congressional testimony. The Gamble examines the congressional hearings through the eyes of Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker, and their views of the questions posed by the presidential candidates.

For Petraeus, prevailing in Iraq means extending the war. Ricks concludes that the war is likely to last another five to ten years—and that that outcome is a best case scenario. Ricks By Thomas E. Ricks Read by James Lurie Category: Buy the Audiobook Download: If you are a seller for this product, would you like to suggest updates through seller support? Learn more about Amazon Prime. Rick's news-breaking follow up to the 1 New York Times bestseller Fiasco Now updated to fully document the inside story of the Iraq war since late , The Gamble is the definitive account of the insurgency within the U.

Based on unprecedented real-time access to the military's entire chain of command, Ricks examines the events that took place as the military was forced to reckon with itself, the surge was launched, and a very different war began. His stunning conclusion, stated in the last line of the book, is that "the events for which the Iraq war will be remembered probably have not yet happened.

Read more Read less. Prime Book Box for Kids. Add all three to Cart Add all three to List. One of these items ships sooner than the other. Buy the selected items together This item: Ships from and sold by Amazon. Imperial Life in The Emerald City: Customers who viewed this item also viewed. Page 1 of 1 Start over Page 1 of 1. The American Military Adventure in Iraq, to Inside Iraq's Green Zone. The Fight for Freedom. Sponsored products related to this item What's this? A powerful holocaust memoir that will leave you breathless and heartbroken, yet, inspired and hopeful!

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Write a customer review. Read reviews that mention thomas ricks general petraeus iraq war white house david petraeus general david bush administration united states american military military adventure well written adventure in iraq middle east highly recommend civil war retired general read this book president bush liberal bias bob woodward. There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later. As an Iraq vet I think Ricks put a lot of good info in the book. Good insight into Petraeus and Odierno and the Bush administration.

Good bird's-eye view of the strategy in Iraq. He obviously did his homework. A little bit of an oversimplification of the humen dimension at work in the psychology of the Iraqi. What did the Iraqi on the street think before and after the Coalition invasion? How did this influence the fiasco of squandering the victorious invasion? Why didn't they see us as liberators. I knew plenty of Iraqis that saw me as a liberator. I knew quite a few more that saw me as an infidel too.

What needs did the surge satisfy in the Iraqi populace? Sky became astonished at how much she loved the American military: Bankers would not operate in Sunni areas. That means Sunnis had to keep a lot of cash on hand which could be robbed. Or they had to drive through Shiite checkpoints with the cash to reach a bank.

The government would not supply much electricity to Sunni areas. Then they would have to go to markets in Shiite areas. Purpose of both ideas is to get rid of the Sunnis. The single biggest change in was the sobriety of the new mind set of the military. It was finally ready to try something new. They lost both mass and velocity and control of the situation. Under Petraeus things changed.

Now commanders spoke to their frustrated soldiers in Arabic: Get rid of extremists by working with them. It was a bit easier here because it meant getting Sunnis back into governing. Risk alienating our own allies, the Shiite-dominated government. Petraeus went even further signing up Sunnis to what became the Sons of Iraq. Reach out to Moqtada al-Sadr. He wanted a date for Americans to leave. We said we couldn't do that.

But then we asked what date they had in mind. They said December The Americans almost laughed because no one wanted to stay that long. So easy to do. Begin reconciling Sunnis and Shiites in local towns and provinces rather than in the government. Slow down transition to Iraq control, called "rushing to failure. Talk the Iraqis into a small US presence. As security succeeded, Al Qaeda used new methods for suicide bombers: Eventually it used mentally handicapped or disabled girls.

The Gamble: General David Petraeus and the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006-2008

The surge succeeded militarily but failed politically. The Americans were looking for reconciliation, but it wasn't happening. The Maliki government didn't want the Sunni militias to become a part of the army or police force, so the Sons of Iraq were patiently hanging on. A turning point for the Maliki government came when they decided to move into Basra where Shiite gangs under the control of Iran were wreaking havoc. It was not planned well but it became a political victory for Maliki. However, Maliki did not understand just how much American help he actually had.

Iran continued to interfere. They had at least four sites where they trained Iraqi Shiites to assassinate Iraqi judges and officials. White House aides and others in the Bush administration took credit for the surge when it really had nothing to do with them. And as I have already pointed out, followed a failed policy and came along with other breakthroughs. Credit should go to Generals Odierno and Keane. I tip my hat to Odierno for his unselfish service to country. One cost of the war is the fraying of the military.

Drug abuse, suicide, divorce, PTSD plague the services. The quality of the recruits has been steadily dropping. Soldiers are dropping out at an alarming rate. Excessive overseas duties has caused great stress. The book offers little hope for a secular, liberal Iraq. Hell, we can't even get that over here. The final line of the book: I really enjoyed this book. Ricks has become one of my favourite American journalist-authors. In this book he follows "The Surge" of in the Iraq occupation, from the clear losing the war period before it, through the idea and its diffusion in the Pentagon, to its execution and issues.

He ends with a pithy analysis of possible futures- and is remarkably prescient. While the book sometimes oversimplifies issues in counterinsurgency, and does make some characters somewhat one-dimensional, an I really enjoyed this book. While the book sometimes oversimplifies issues in counterinsurgency, and does make some characters somewhat one-dimensional, any reader will come away much better informed on the topic.

Mar 13, Fraser Kinnear rated it liked it Shelves: Oct 30, Philip rated it liked it. Engaging account of the planning, execution, and outcomes of "the surge" in Iraq, told entirely from the perspective of the Americans.

There are hardly any Iraqi voices in this book. Jun 25, Doreen Petersen rated it really liked it Shelves: Insightful book on the Iraq war. Although I did not agree with US involvement I do think this is a book worth checking out. Ricks did not cause me nearly the heartburn as his previous work on Iraq, Fiasco see my review.

For many reasons I opposed the war in Iraq hence the gastric distress , but after shattering the fabric of that country — a tenuous fabric holding in check three distrustful and vengeful groups: Kurds, Shia and Sunni — I felt we had an obligation to stay the course. My mother always said: And boy, did we break Iraq. From shortly after the ill-conceived invasion in to the arrival of General David Petraeus in , the U. An insurgency was ignited, sectarian groups squared off in what for all intents was a civil war, and our military tactics only made things worse.

Eschewing the heavy-handed tactics which were not working, Petraeus and his corps commander General Odierno, and their support staffs, used the hard-won surge of five brigades of additional troops to implement a classic counter-insurgency COIN approach whereby the people of Iraq were viewed as the prize to be won. In fact, by paying former Sunni insurgents to stop fighting us and overlooking the ethnic cleansing of whole neighborhoods by Shia militias, the events of really represented a somewhat unsavory gamble that could have blown up in our face at any time, and still might.

It is interesting to note, too, that as the level of violence in Iraq began to come down, events in the U. One shudders to think what would have happened if the shift to COIN operations had not worked and a wartime loss, divisive election and crippling recession occurred simultaneously. Some reviewers have noted the somewhat pessimistic view of many quoted in the book that US presence in Iraq would likely continue for decades is out of step with the reality of our withdrawal in Realize this book was published early in although the Afterword appears to have been included later in the year , and therefore it is a point in time and doubtless those interviewed were giving their best estimate at the time.

Facts are facts, and Ricks sticks to the facts in his reporting but through interviews with key persons and experts all sides of the political spectrum are aired.

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The Gamble is an important addition to understanding the events of that period and I highly recommend it. Dec 14, Brick rated it it was amazing Shelves: My brother, an Army Reservist, was mobilized for the invasion of Iraq in , and again for the Surge. As a result, I watched and listened to the media reports throughout, very carefully. I was well aware of the discrepancies between what was reported and what I learned about what was going on, in large part because of the many reporters and authors who were bringing us alternative points of view, generally not covered in the evening news.

As a result, I thought I was pretty well informed about My brother, an Army Reservist, was mobilized for the invasion of Iraq in , and again for the Surge. As a result, I thought I was pretty well informed about the facts of this time period. Ricks two books, Fiasco, and this one, lay out details that fill in the blanks. I am left with several conclusions: I hold George W. Bush responsible, but after reading these two books, I conclude that he was in large part misled about the lack of progress and the wholly inadequate planning by his top direct reports.

When he finally 'got it' he and the White House staff worked around the folks who were holding the line on 'happy talk' and enabled the change in strategy that accompanied the surge. Astonishingly, many highly placed professional military and diplomatic personnel saw what was coming, and then saw what was happening on the ground, and worked diligently to make the facts known. They were extremely important in turning things around from on, making the best of the bad choices available.

General Petraeus and the American Military Adventure in Iraq

Some of these people left their very successful careers behind, leaving and speaking out, finally even leading the change from outside the official organization. Odierno, Petraeus, and the troops on the ground deserve incredible credit for what they accomplished, as do the others who worked from outside. Many of the careerist top brass of the military failed their troops and the country by going along with their civilian leaders without sufficient pushback.

I have seen situations like this, in other context, and heard the leadership say after the facts became clear, "you did not push hard enough, the blame resides with you". The Army's institutionalized introspection shows up very strongly in these accounts and is surprising, in light of how this 10 year effort played out, but the lessons learned were learned by the professionals, not by the civilians who came in and then left, ignorant and arrogant.

Overall, an incredibly important account, should be required reading for all who might presume to participate in national governance. But infuriatingly sad reading at many points. Jun 24, Abben rated it did not like it Shelves: I am not aware of anyone with the access to the high-level army officials and documents Ricks had access to, aside from such officials themselves. The cheif importance of this book, I think, is first that it is a counterpoint to the self-serving memoirs of Paul Wolfowitz, George Tenet et al, on behalf of those within the Army and the Pentagon who were fighting the good fight for sanity.

The second is that it describes the formation of "The Surge" strategy, and its explanation is radically differ I am not aware of anyone with the access to the high-level army officials and documents Ricks had access to, aside from such officials themselves. The second is that it describes the formation of "The Surge" strategy, and its explanation is radically different than the one offered by Bob Woodward's book The War Within. Though I haven't read The War Within, I suspect that Ricks account that it originated from former General Jack Keane, who then convinced people inside the army, who then convinced the President is more accurate.

The largest problem with The Gamble the agonizingly vague and euphemistic narrative style. There is so much more saying than showing. Ricks will write things like "it was obvious that Iranians were active in Basra," with utterly no context, examples, or elaboration. Nothing but the hypnotic combination of vagueness and seeming obviousnes you might expect from a promotional scientology video. A fact that comes again completely without context- there is no way to judge its significance, no way to tell if, this time, this is a credible force or a credible number or a meaningfull event.

And we should wonder whether it is any of these, because if you read Ricks' previous book, Fiasco, you would learn about the "fantasy numbers" of Iraqi police that were promoted by the Bush administration, and the low reliability of the ones that actually existed. The final two thirds of this book are written almost exclusively from the perspective of the U. Army, and especially the perspective of General David Petraeus, in a big heaving attempt to co-opt liberal criticism of the war and encourage those critics to support long term American presence in Iraq, perhaps decades long.

Emma Sky, a British war critic and assistant to Gen. Odierno represents critics of the war in general, in miniature represents what is supposed to happen to the reader: Instead of taking seriously that the war might be in some sense fundamentally unjust, the narrative is dominated by the ups and downs and changing strategies of the Army, as if purposely trying to transform the debate about Iraq into a question of "how do we win", which implies that we should even want to do whatever it is that winning is.

May 18, Bojan Tunguz rated it really liked it. The travails of us policy and military engagement in Iraq have been dominating the news for the better part of five years since the invasion in until some time in The reason is quite obvious: And yet the news from Iraq stopped dominating the headlines some time in The reason for this dramatic turnaround is The travails of us policy and military engagement in Iraq have been dominating the news for the better part of five years since the invasion in until some time in The reason for this dramatic turnaround is quite clear: This strategy and the way that it came about is the theme of this book.

Unlike many other books that have come out in recent years, this one is largely written from the military's point of view. If there is a single name that come to symbolize "The Surge" that would be the name of general Petraeus. Unjustifiably maligned by some war opponents early on in his new assignment of turning the situation in Iraq around, he has become a stellar example of professionalism and success with one of the most difficult military assignments ever.

But Petraeus was not the only one in the military who contributed to the development of the new strategy. There are many others, either on active duty or as civilian advisers, who have helped shape and develop the new strategy. This book does a very good job of describing those contributions and giving credit to people who have largely labored behind the scenes. It features many combat commanders and their troops, and it gives many examples from the frontlines that help illustrate and affirm the main points.

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What makes this book particularly interesting and valuable is the sheer amount of first-hand interview material. Almost all of the main military protagonists are featured, and many of their most important experiences recoded and presented in an easy journalistic style. The approach to policy that the book adopts is pragmatic rather than ideological.

It gives as sober of an assessment of what happened during the war as one can find these days. It concludes with a sobering prediction of where the military engagement is headed, and a prediction that a substantial US presence is likely to remain in Iraq for many more years, if not decades. The only issue that I have with the book is that it may contain too much information: But otherwise this is an excellent read and a must for anyone who is interested in what has really been happening with The Surge and why it worked in the end.

Jan 10, Jack rated it really liked it Shelves: Kudos to Ricks for once again writing a masterful account of the now latter half of the American War in Iraq. This book, in sharp contrast to Fiasco, is a portrait of hypercompetence and thoughtful decision-making, whereas Ricks portrayed the first half of the war as a disaster of incompetence and intellectual arrogance.

Interestingly, one of the examples of arrogance and stubbornness in Fiasco, General Ray Odierno of the Fourth Infantry Division who implemented heavy-handed policies against insu Kudos to Ricks for once again writing a masterful account of the now latter half of the American War in Iraq. Interestingly, one of the examples of arrogance and stubbornness in Fiasco, General Ray Odierno of the Fourth Infantry Division who implemented heavy-handed policies against insurgencies as well as the local populace, is no presented as a convert to the counter-insurgency school within the US army alongside David Patraeus.

Perhaps the best part of this book is the portrayal of the colorful military personalities who make up the major cast of the turnaround that is the surge. The triumvirate who drove forward the surge was Patraeus, perhaps the most directly responsible for the initiative and definitely the most responsible for its execution, Odierno, who was critical to the new doctrine's uniform acceptance within the army and also its execution, and retired General Jack Keane, who as the former mentor of both Odierno and Patraeus, helped to maneuver the two into positions of command, and pulls much of the strings behind the scene to turn around US strategy in Iraq.

Keane, the devoted soldier who broke precedence by actively influencing military strategy and policy by giving the White House advice bypassing the Joint Chiefs, fits the mold as the insightful, self-starting, devoted public servant. Odierno also provides a riveting portrait of a soldier going down the wrong strategic path, but was humble and wise enough to turn degrees towards the right direction.

Lastly, Patraeus is the centerpiece of the book. He is the consummate soldier but also the consummate intellectual. Ricks weaves a masterful narrative about how these three men along with others in the military and political spaces, managed to regain the strategic initiative in what looked to be America's second Vietnam, and it proved to be a very compelling story.

If you're anything like me, you probably haven't been paying enough attention to the Iraq War. Whatever your reason, and whatever your politics, this book goes a long way into remedying years of neglect, and in the process, lets you know that you're not alone and why. It's a condensed history of the war from to , starting at probably the lowest point in the Iraq War: The massacre at Haditha, where U. It ends with a If you're anything like me, you probably haven't been paying enough attention to the Iraq War.

It ends with a nearly degree security situation and a new president two years later. What's most amazing about this book is that the author, Thomas Ricks, makes clear the relationship between and the effects of policy makers at the highest level, President Bush, Rumsfeld, and others, down through the chain of command to Army privates acting on the ground. The massacre at Haditha serves as a prime example of which there are many of the flawed military thinking in the Iraq War from This book goes on to explore the shift in ideology and strategy starting with the massacre in through the development of a counterinsurgency strategy, the goal of which is to protect civilians at all costs.

For me, the flaws of the book stem from the quality of the book. The author is a reporter, and it seems that reporters truly embedded in their subject will start nurture an emotional attachment that might be a little askew from objectivity. Ricks seems to feel this way about General Petraus' "revolutionary" new strategy: As someone who cares deeply about human rights and international development, the lessons learned after years of war should not have been presented in such a shocking, blindingly brilliant light; instead, they should have been presented as ideas that have been out there, propagated by many speakers, academics, and policymakers for years but that havebeen ignored.

Regardless, this book is a must-read. You do owe it to yourself to understand the wars our country is engaged in, at least marginally. After all, we'll be paying for this war for many years to come. Mar 07, Jack rated it really liked it. More than just the surge, the new strategy involved a radical change in military operations - a turn of objectives to protect the population, to engage the civilians with respect and in an non-confrontational manner, and to take a nuanced view against the insurgency. The book emphasizes that this surge, and the "War without End" is the title of the final section of this book, and that exactly describes the reality of the war in Iraq within the perspective of the new counter-insurgency thinking.

The book emphasizes that this surge, and the strategy in general, was in great doubt initially on if it would work. It was, in short, a gamble, and it is not yet over. The author, is also careful to point out that while the surge has been "successful" in terms of the drop in violence, it hasn't "succeeded" in terms of the political reconciliation that was hoped to occur as a result of the improved security.

The author points out that the alignment with the Sunni militias as part of the "Sons of Iraq" program, may actually have the eventual paradoxical effect of hardening the sectarian divisions - he quotes from Ambassador Crocker who fears a "Lebanonization" of Iraq.

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