UFPPC's Monday evening book discussion group, Digging Deeper, will devote two sessions to discussing two recent accounts of the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq.[1] -- At 7:00 p.m. on Aug. 21 and Aug. 28 at the Mandolin Café in Tacoma (3923 S. 12th St.), you're invited to join in a discussion of Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq (Pantheon, 2006) by Michael R. Gordon and Gen. Bernard E. Trainor and Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq (Penguin Press, 2006) by Thomas R. Ricks. -- Ricks's volume débuted last week at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list; Gordon and Trainor published their book in March. -- Both books are easily available in bookstores; Cobra II is available in many libraries. -- More information below....
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WHAT: "Digging Deeper XXI: The Invasion and Occupation of Iraq" -- UFPPC's Monday evening book discussion group
WHO: Led by Mark Jensen
WHEN: Monday, August 21 & 28, 2006 -- 7:00 p.m.-8:30 p.m.
WHERE: Mandolin Café, 3923 South 12th Street, Tacoma, WA
A United for Peace of Pierce County study circle
DIGGING DEEPER XXI: THE INVASION AND OCCUPATION OF IRAQ
On the last two Monday evenings in August, Digging Deeper will discuss two recent volumes offering critical and substantive accounts of the American adventure in Iraq. Written by the chief military correspondents of the New York Times and the Washington Post, respectively, Cobra II and Fiasco cover much the same ground. Thus the two volumes present contrasting perspectives on the same events, and also exhibit the characteristic shortcomings of mainstream media views of U.S. foreign policy.
Cobra II, by Michael Gordon and Gen. Bernard Trainor, was published in March 2006; Thomas Ricks’s Fiasco is just out, débuting at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list on Aug. 13.
· Michael R. Gordon and General Bernard E. Trainor, Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq (Pantheon, 2006). Michael Gordon is the chief military correspondent of the New York Times, and has covered the Iraq war, the American intervention in Afghanistan, the Kosovo conflict, the Russian war in Chechnya, the Gulf War, and the U.S. invasion of Panama. Bernard Trainor is a retired Marine Corps lieutenant general who covered the military for the New York Times from 1986 to 1990 and later directed the National Security Program at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government; he is currently a military analyst for NBC. — “The authors’ dispassionate prose imparts their impeccably researched story of the 2003 Iraq invasion—from concept to insurgency. Sourced at the highest levels, Cobra II captures the fog of war and war planning. . . . [T]he book's [reveals] that an invasion plan was being formed not long after September 11, despite administration denials. Strictly supervising the plan was defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who was intent on transforming the military into a lighter, leaner force. False assumptions, faulty intelligence, willful ignorance, personal politics, and a lack of foresight all fed into the invasion strategy and subsequent messy outcome.” —Publishers Weekly.
· Thomas E. Ricks, Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq (Penguin Press, 2006). Thomas Ricks is the senior Pentagon correspondent of the Washington Post; until 1999, he covered the Pentagon for the Wall Street Journal. He has reported on the U.S. military from Somalia, Haiti, Korea, Bosnia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Kuwait, Turkey, Afghanistan, and Iraq, and is the author of Making the Corps: 61 Men Came to Parris Island to Become Marines (Diane Publishing, 1997) and A Soldier’s Duty: A Novel (Random House, 2002). — “The main points of this hard-hitting indictment of the Iraq war have been made before, but seldom with such compelling specificity. . . . Ricks (Making the Corps) contends that, under Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and Feith, the Pentagon concocted ‘the worst war plan in American history,’ with insufficient troops and no thought for the invasion’s aftermath. . . . Based on extensive interviews with American soldiers and officers as well as first-hand reportage, Ricks’s detailed, unsparing account of the occupation paints a woeful panorama of reckless firepower, mass arrests, humiliating home invasions, hostage-taking, and abuse of detainees. It holds individual commanders to account, from top generals Tommy Franks and Ricardo Sanchez on down. The author's conviction that a proper hearts-and-minds counter-insurgency strategy might have salvaged the debacle is perhaps naďve, and pays too little heed to the intractable ethnic conflicts underlying what is by now a full-blown civil war. Still, Ricks's solid reporting, deep knowledge of the American military and willingness to name names make this perhaps the most complete, incisive analysis yet of the Iraq quagmire.” —Publishers Weekly.
Since July 2004, United for Peace of Pierce County has been conducting “Digging Deeper,” a Monday-night book discussion group, often in the form of a study circle. Topics have included peak oil, climate change, the corporation, Iran, and the writings of Robert Baer, as well as abiding themes of war, peace, politics, and social change. Occasionally, the group has spent several weeks reading longer works, like Daniel Yergin’s The Prize or Robert Fisk’s The Great War for Civilisation.
DIGGING DEEPER meets every Monday from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Mandolin Café, 3923 S. 12th St., Tacoma, WA.
Participation is free. Cobra II and Fiasco are available in most bookstores. Information: contact Mark Jensen (jensenmk@plu.edu; 253-756-7519).
Regular meetings of United for Peace of Pierce County are held at 7:00 p.m. on 1st and 3rd Thursdays at First United Methodist Church, 423 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Tacoma, WA.
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