GI Special 4H1: "Delaying Defeat" - August 1, 2006

Thomas F. Barton

Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq - the title alone of Thomas E. Ricks's book is enough to make it shoot to number one on Amazon.com. Ricks has twice been a member of a reporting team that won the Pulitzer; he has been covering the military for over 20 years. His recent book is a brutal look at the bundle of failures in conception, operation and execution that are the American involvement in Iraq.On Friday, he was at the New America Foundation along with Colonel Larry Wilkerson (retired), former chief of staff at the State Department, at a gathering hosted by Steve Clemons, the director of the American Strategy Program at NAF.His conclusion is that Iraq is in a "civil war," and that the occupation has reached a point where it is "delaying defeat."

continua / continued