Washington Post – The war in Iraq isn’t over. The main events may not even have happened yet.

Tom Ricks provides the postscript to his new book entitled “Gamble.”

Washington Post – A Military Tactician’s Political Strategy

The second excerpt from Tom Ricks’ new book on the surge entitled “The Gamble:”

In defending the troop increase, General Petraeus paved the way for a “long war.”

Washington Post – The Dissenter Who Changed the War

The first excerpt from Tom Ricks’ new book on the surge in Iraq, entitled “The Gamble:”

As the No. 2 commander in Iraq, Army Gen. Raymond T. Odierno challenged the military establishment, pressing for the case for a “surge” of U.S. troops and a long-term strategy to guide them.

World Affairs – When gadgetry becomes strategy

The US military’s reliance of technical superiority highlights a wayward path that leads back to Vietnam writes H R McMaster.

New York Times – Official History Spotlights Iraq Rebuilding Blunders

An unpublished 513-page federal history of the American-led reconstruction of Iraq depicts an effort crippled before the invasion by Pentagon planners who were hostile to the idea of rebuilding a foreign country, and then molded into a $100 billion failure by bureaucratic turf wars, spiraling violence and ignorance of the basic elements of Iraqi society and infrastructure.

National Journal – What Can 44 Do In Iraq And Afghanistan?

The Former CENTCOM Commander Anthony Zinni on Iraq, Afghanistan and the next Administration’s options.

Washington Post – Excepts from Bob Woodward’s new book, The War Within, that describes the inside story of how President Bush’s team dealt with its failing Iraq strategy.

Part 2: Outmaneuvered And Outranked, Military Chiefs Became Outsiders

Part 3: ‘You’re Not Accountable, Jack’

Part 4: A Portrait of a Man Defined by His Wars

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New Yorker – David Petraeus, the pressures of politics, and the road out of Iraq.
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New York Times – John Nagl on what our exit strategy should be from Iraq.
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New York Times Magazine – Michael Gordon writes that the fight between the Shiites and the Sunnis in Iraq seems to be quieting down. But the Shiites still have one fight left — among themselves.
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New York Times – Admiral Fallon shows the way forward in Iraq.
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Associated Press – A nearly 700-page study released Sunday by the Army found that “in the euphoria of early 2003,” U.S.-based commanders prematurely believed their goals in Iraq had been reached and did not send enough troops to handle the occupation.
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Foreign Affairs – The Bush administration’s new strategy in Iraq has helped reduce violence. But the surge is not linked to any sustainable plan for building a viable Iraqi state and may even have made such an outcome less likely — by stoking the revanchist fantasies of Sunni tribes and pitting them against the central government. The recent short-term gains have thus come at the expense of the long-term goal of a stable, unitary Iraq.
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Harvard Political Review – Former CENTCOM Commander Anthony Zinni discusses the future of Iraq and more.
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New York Times – Michael Gordon writes that the decision by L. Paul Bremer III to dissolve Iraqís Army was a reversal from a plan the White House had approved.
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Washington Post – LTC John Nagl reviews our current position in Iraq and describes the way forward???
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Harvard Independent – General Zinni on The Long War: “I give us an A+ on tactics, I give us a C maybe operationally dealing with it, and I would give us an F strategically in how we deal with al-Qaida and think about terrorism.”
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New York Times – The Army is accustomed to protecting classified information. But when it comes to the planning for the Iraq war, even an unclassified assessment can acquire the status of a state secret.

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Washington Post – Tom Ricks writes that senior U.S. military commanders in Iraq say they want to freeze troop reductions starting this summer for at least a month, making it more likely that the next administration will inherit as many troops in Iraq as there were before President Bush announced a “surge” of forces a year ago.
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New York Times – Michael Gordon writes that for the past year, he has led a double existence, dividing his time between military reporting assignments in Iraq and tracking the campaign debate in the United States???Those were parallel universes, in which the discussion of the taxing road ahead and potential fall-back options were often so divergent that the generals and the politicians seemed not to be talking about the same war.
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New York Times – Michael Gordon writes that a growing number of Sunni insurgents have relocated to Mosul and other places in northern Iraq.
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Washington Post – Thomas Ricks writes that former top Pentagon official Douglas Feith blamed the Bush administration’s top official in Iraq for abandoning a plan for a quick transition to Iraqi leadership in the summer of 2003 and instead keeping the U.S. government in control of the country for more than a year.
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New Yorker – Jon Lee Anderson writes that the American military finds new allies, but at what cost?
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Washington Post – Thomas Ricks writes that senior military commanders in Iraq now portray the intransigence of Iraq’s Shiite-dominated government as the key threat facing the U.S. effort in Iraq, rather than al-Qaeda terrorists, Sunni insurgents or Iranian-backed militias.
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Mother Jones – Colonel H.R. McMaster on the current state of affairs in Iraq.
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