The Iraq War

Rating:
Summary: Short but insightful
Review: This book is a concise and insightful overview of the U.S.-led war to topple Saddam Hussein. The title, however, is misleading as only half of "The Iraq War" actually covers the run-up to the war, the war itself, and its immediate aftermath. The first half of the text - which runs less than 220 pages total - is about the creation of modern Iraq, the rise of Saddam, and the ruinous wars he fought with Iran and the U.S.-led coalition in the First Gulf War.

Nonetheless, Mr. Keegan brings his considerable expertise as a historian and a journalist to draw clear lines from Iraq's past to its present and cast current events in their historical context. As someone only passing familiar with Middle East history, the book provides a good refresher.

One of the most interesting sections deals with the cultural divide between the United States and Europe. Mr. Keegan holds that while 9/11 pushed the U.S. into a suspicious, defensive mindset, Europe remained in the grip of a political paradigm, characterized by the European Union, in which all dispute is resolved through negotiation, compromise, and the implementation of minute regulation. Yet the weakness of that system, according to Mr. Keegan, is that it lacks any means to enforce its will should some party decide to rebel. The book maintains a slightly chiding tone towards Europe and the media, and Mr. Keegan's admiration of American values and will is obvious.

The second half of the book deals directly with the conduct of the war itself. It is divided into four sections - the American war, the British war, the fall of Baghdad, and the aftermath. Many passages are devoted to detailing which division, battalion, etc went where. Mr. Keegan recounts several key battles, such as the intense fighting around the Moe, Larry and Curly overpasses in Baghdad. But many of these engagements were reported by embedded journalists at the time, and little new ground is covered here. Many details were provided by U.S. Gen. Tommy Franks, who drew up the battle plans and directed combat, and who granted Mr. Keegan a 90-minute interview that the author praises as one of the most instructive he's ever received by a senior military officer.

Among the highlights are how the coalition, the Americans in particular, managed logistics, keeping supply chains running smoothly despite sandstorms and guerilla attacks. It is also interesting to read of the British tactics used in securing Basra, and their subsequent success in winning over the local population (which was already highly disposed to welcome the fall of Saddam and the Ba'ath Party). Mr. Keegan also does a good job of putting into context some decisions that seem ill-advised in retrospect, such as the disbanding of the Iraqi army. Although that move threw hundreds of thousands of men out of work in a labor market unable to absorb them, at the time it was deemed a bigger risk to have potentially unstable and unpredictable people in the military.

"The Iraq War" is not the book you want if you are looking for minute details of how the war was conducted, or if you want lots of eye-witness commentary and insider dirt on who did what. But if you want a solid but quick read-up on what is sure to be a key event of this decade, this could be the book for you.


Rating:
Summary: Good supplement -- but look elsewhere for a full history.
Review: This is the first book I've read by Keegan, so I wasn't sure what to expect from him as an author. In learning about and understanding the U.S. war with Iraq in 2003, it is absolutely essential to learn about the wars which preceded it, as well as Saddam Hussein's brutal reign as dictator and how he rose to power. Consequently, unlike other reviewers I wouldn't fault Keegan for spending the first several chapters of this book for establishing the background. As to the actual history of the war itself which consists of the latter half pp. 126-219, it is a good readable and concise history of the war -- howbeit one that doesn't stand alone but rather should be appreciated in conjunction with Murray and Scales' "The Iraq War : A Military History" and supplemented by the numerous published accounts by troops and imbedded journalists that are now being published. For this reason I'd give it 3 stars.

Rating:
Summary: FDU.....a history in review
Review: When President Bush declared that all major combat in Iraq was over in May 2003, the total number of American combat casualty was 122 and 33 for the British. As of to date, that number has increased tenfold to 1275 for the American, 74 for the British and also 72 from other countries in the coalition. It is intriguing for the reader to find out why? However, as John Keegan hastened to finish this book, he left out most of the events that took place later on of the war. He did, however, give the reader a great deal of factual elements; thus, allow the reader a better understanding of Iraq's history and its volatile region.
Nevertheless, I suggest Keegan's fast interpretation of the history and the general description of the Iraq War of 2003.
The first four chapters of the book emphasized a background history of Iraq and the emergence of Saddam Hussein. Keegan presented the reader a general view of the complication of the Middle East politics and the involvement of the West, especially, Britain's relationship with Arab culture during the First World War. Along with numerous facts such as races, religions, tribals' allegiance or hatred and the discovery of oil had that complicated Iraqi politics, which would facilitate the reader a better understand of the region. The main problem was the division of the Iraqi population into three main groups: the Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds, where each group has struggled to be the dominant. On the religion aspect, Keegan expressed that it was a difficult task to penetrate the veil of Islam for the western world and also introduced the Muslim Brotherhood as the vanguard of the extremists' Al-Qaeda. In chapter three, Keegan described the surrounding and conditions that Saddam grew up which had created him to be a cruel and brutal individual, who idolized the world's dictators, Hitler and Stalin. Saddam was a perfect example of Waltz's First image, where an individual's flaw was the cause for war. Internally, Saddam eliminated his political opponents to strengthen his power. Externally, he sought to be the leader of the Arab world by declared war with Iran over the border issue with the supports of Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and eventually, American. However, when a fall out over whether or not he should pay the funds that Kuwaitis and the Saudis had supported him in his invasion of Iran was when the delicate relations fell apart and older resentments rematerialized.
The final sections are devoted to the Iraq War. The grounds for the war, however, were not very straightforward, and the cohesiveness of the coalition was drastically reduced. As the events of September 11 aroused American and the Bush administration a need for payback, as a result, there was an acceptable belief that Iraq was clearly involved in the scheme one way or another. Nevertheless, Saddam Hussein had chosen not to prove that he was innocent. Saddam stubbornness and the West, especially U.S. neoconservatives' propensity to make war were the perfect conditions for a military confrontation. Keegan illustrated a sense of exhilaration as the world argued whether Saddam was truly a threat, who continued to develop weapons of mass destruction, or in some way, was linked to the 9/11 tragedy. The author described the disparity of the Security Council over the quantity of time that would allow for the inspection was a precise example of Blainey's A Calendar of War theory when U.S. and British forces were prepared and waiting in the theater while France and other preferred for more time. Keegan went on to explain a general ideal of the military buildups, which was very generalized and dry to follow, the role of the Americans and British's forces in actual battle, and eventually, the fall of Baghdad. In reality, the United States and British dominant forces had little problem destroying what was left of Iraqi defenses. The Iraqi defenders basically dissolved into the population to create havoc afterward. An invasion to free Iraq has developed into an occupation. Ensue by the hunt for justifications of the war which seemed to slide away once the action was over and the aftermath, or at least part of it as we can begin to make our own distinction.