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This is an nicely written book and a must read for anyone interested in the "War on Terror".
Faddis is refreshingly upfront on what he did, what he saw and what he feels. Their invasion support operations were both ignored and undermined. The Epilogue has a lot of common sense policy recommendations.I highly recommend this book. Faddis seems to have found some WMDs.
Was there ANY part of this war that was well managed.The information they sent back was fully ignored. Now we have a narrative about the outrageous lack of administrative support for the CIA operatives who entered Iraq prior to the invasion. It would all be laughable if so many lives had not been lost. to be ready for supplies arriving over Turkish air space and gives him orders on striking railroad tracks, again, laughable except that following such nonsense is life-threatening.Lt.Col.
We don't know that Mosul would have been a smooth surrender as Faddis/Sam says, had Waltemeyer followed practical advice. This group would have been better off with no support from DC rather than with the dysfunctional support they received. Everything from Washington from President Bush to his appointees was off. The utter folly of relying on Chalabi is an outrage all its own besides so many others (Bremer's de-Baathifation for one). There are now books about the bad intelligence, the botched occupation and almost any aspect of the Iraq war and its aftermath.
Waltemeyer is portrayed as the perfect jerk from central casting who arrives with full confidence of knowledge he doesn't have. He ignores all work that has gone on before him and not only marginalizes the people who know the terrain and the players, he officially isolates them so that no one can benefit from their work. It certainly looks like Waltemeyer's goal was to make Rumsfeld look good at the expense of using the intelligence gathered by this team. Of further of interest about Mosul, why was there no follow up on what might have been discovered. Headquarters tells Sam. Their alliances were disrespected. could this be true.The book ends with the author's return from the chaos of Iraq (Bremer has just fired the army) to DC where the support people, the types who "knew" the Turks would grant air space, etc., were in a state of "Mission Accomplished" celebration.Some reviewers object to the prose.
I wonder how many besides the CIA on the ground had warned the tin-eared neo-cons about him. was it 8 times. Do they really want this genuine voice to be tempered by a ghost writer.
its a quite comprehensive insight on the stupidity of bush administration and how bad the kurdish card was played. in addition illustrates quite well the attitude and behaviour of NATO ally turkey. its a good read even though isnt the most well writen book ever.i recomended for any one that has an interest on that part of the world.
This book will absolutely destroy the Bush-as-hero-who-deposed-Saddam point of view, and will vindicate the Bush-as-idiot point of view. Our Turkish allies were allies in the sense that the French were our allies in the cold war, in other words, not at all. With few exceptions, the American military had little more than indifference to the assistance offered by the Kurds. The authors do not at all debate the merits of the war. That much said, this book does bring out certain details leading up to the war that have not been addressed in any other literature. It sheds light on the uppermost political and military gross and unfathomable incompetence that was a prelude to the war. This book will literally make those who love the military bang their head against the wall at the total mind boggling stupidity of the Bush-Rumsfeld-CIA Tenet team who brought us into the war. This book goes to very great lengths to have nothing but the greatest of encomiums and admiration for the Iraqi Kurdish people that wanted only to render us the unstinted and bravest of assistance in deposing Saddam.
The authors depict the Bush people as unconscionably and obdurately wed to their political beliefs in the face of bald faced realities that ran counter to those beliefs. Specifically, the Bush administrations' beliefs that our Turkish NATO "allies" would assist us in the war against Saddam. This book was a very light read, perhaps a bit too light in that certain details that might have brought a clearer picture were left out. Thus I regard this book as a necessity if one wants to consider oneself well read on the Iraq War and events leading up to it.
There has been some rumors about CIA operations before March of 03. He also cites how the White House was so in love with Chalabi so much they wouldn't let the facts upset that idea. The book isn't written all that well. That is the bad part of the book. The author also mentions that he saw nuclear weapons production parts outside of a plant in Mosul Iraq at the end of the invasion of Iraq in 03.
It is in places nothing but the transcript of an interview of the station chief. It is an exciting story to read about how they got into Iraq, how they set up, what they did in country, their complications and all that. These things are revolutionary if true. This book chronicles that story. They viewed things in Iraq like a staff game they played in the Pentagon war room. However the author has some critical things to say about Bush.
The story sounds like a movie as you get into it. Other books say the same thing about the Washington way of war. No one else has done that outside of the political supporters. This book has much to offer with some limitations. The book is about the CIA station chief in Northern Iraq, before the start of the war. He cites a couple of cases where Washington had no perspective on reality. He cites that he knew of a Al Qaeda base inside of Iraq. The author has a couple of really huge things.
That prevented them taking up other opportunities that might have ended the war successfully. Those soldiers went straight into the resistance when Sadam's government collapsed. The author even describes the background information of the interview place like what the waitress was at the coffee shop in Washington DC. First, a little about the book.
Another example is where they sent in a DoD team to check things out but each team, the DoD team and the CIA team not to talk to each other behind enemy lines. If true these claims back up President Bush's speeches justifying the Iraq War. To my knowledge he is the only author who supports two of President Bushes main reasons for the war. However if a person focuses on the content you will enjoy the book.
One example of this is how they ordered the CIA crew to get ready to receive several airplanes load of weapons in Iraq for the Kurds. No one else has said that fact. The book makes some claims that you won't see anywhere else. If that is true it backs up Bushes claim that Sadam was in bed with Ben Laden. He not only knew of the base through collected intelligence but personally saw the base. It is like you get a first hand peak behind the "secret" door of the government. The City of Mosul remains hot even today.I think anyone would enjoy this book. I found such requests behind lines from headquarters very funny, almost like something from Monty Python.
That adds a little new twist to the story of Iraq. He stated that the infighting Bush allowed between the CIA and DoD under Rumsfeld screwed up the surrender of the Iraqi Army in Northern Iraq. It is also interesting to hear through this guy's perspective about went wrong. They ordered the CIA on site crew to light up a runway, get trucks and forklifts for unloading a plan ready. Again this book is the only place outside of Bush worshipers where that claim is stated. This book would make a GREAT movie.
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