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The End of Iraq

How American Incompetence Created a War Without End

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The End of Iraq

By: Peter W. Galbraith
Narrated by: Alan Sklar
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About this listen

The United States invaded Iraq with grand ambitions to bring it democracy and thereby transform the Middle East. Instead, Iraq has disintegrated into three constituent components: a pro-western Kurdistan in the north, an Iran-dominated Shiite entity in the south, and a chaotic Sunni Arab region in the center. The country is plagued by insurgency and is in the opening phases of a potentially catastrophic civil war.

George W. Bush broke up Iraq when he ordered its invasion in 2003. The United States not only removed Saddam Hussein, it also smashed and later dissolved the institutions by which Iraq's Sunni Arab minority ruled the country: its army, its security services, and the Baath Party. With these institutions gone and irreplaceable, the basis of an Iraqi state has disappeared.

The End of Iraq describes the administration's strategic miscalculations behind the war as well as the blunders of the American occupation. There was the failure to understand the intensity of the ethnic and religious divisions in Iraq. This was followed by incoherent and inconsistent strategies for governing, the failure to spend money for reconstruction, the misguided effort to create a national army and police, and then the turning over of the country's management to Republican political loyalists rather than qualified professionals. As a matter of morality, Peter W. Galbraith writes, the Kurds of Iraq are no less entitled to independence than are Lithuanians, Croatians, or Palestinians. And if the country's majority Shiites want to run their own affairs, or even have their own state, on what democratic principle should they be denied?

©2006 Peter W. Galbraith (P)2008 Tantor
Freedom & Security Military National Security United States War Civil War

Editorial reviews

The End of Iraq: How American Incompetence Created a War Without End is a thorough account of America's war on Iraq and the consequences of this military involvement. Alan Sklar's performance accentuates the gravity of the subject. Sklar's sober tone and the steadiness of his voice make it easy for the audience to trust the content presented herein. In The End of Iraq Galbraith examines the factions within Iraq's population and explains how these divisions impede America's exit from the region. This is a well-researched and engaging audio, full of essential information for Americans interested in foreign policy.

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