6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Primer Without All of the Controversy..., March 16, 2006
This review is from: The Iraq War: The Military Offensive, from Victory in 21 Days to the Insurgent Aftermath (Paperback)
Excellent primer about this modern conflict minus the spin, controversy, and commercial interruptions...
1. John Keegan is without a doubt, one of the most highly respected military historians alive. If you're not familiar with his work, I'd highly recommend The Mask of Command (Alexander the Great, U.S Grant, Wellington, Hitler) and The Face of the Battle. (Waterloo, Somme, Agincourt)
2. In The Iraq War, a short book and quick read, he starts with a brief history of Iraq, the rise of Saddam, the first Gulf War, and the most recent conflict. He ends with a postscript that details event in Iraq as recently as October 2004.
A few points:
In the minds of many, the decision to go to war, the actual conflict, and the handling of recent events is politically charged, controversial, and even questionable in terms of the legitimate use of force. Regardless of your position, this book is a good informative read. Keegan skirts almost all controversy to describe the motives to go war and the execution of the conflict with complete clarity. It's a quick read. He takes you from the allied forces crossing the Kuwait border to the fall of Baghdad in about 40 pages.
The brief section regarding Saddam's rise to power is fascinating. Appendix 2, which is a summation of his discussion with General Franks is also interesting and well organized: esp. Frank's description of the five fronts in Iraq and the use of deceptive operations.
Hardcore fans of Keegan will no doubt be disappointed. (This is the historian with the ability to take you into the minds of Alexander the Great, Wellington, and Adolph Hitler with ease; and describe their campaigns with the same effortless and highly readable prose.
You have to take this book for what it is: a brief expose on the current conflict. Also, towards the end of the book, Keegan even states that not enough time has passed to give the conflict true historical perspective.
If the only thing you know about the Iraq War, Saddam, and the history of Iraq is limited to television news coverage, I'd highly recommend this book.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Concise General History of the War in Iraq, October 31, 2005
This review is from: The Iraq War: The Military Offensive, from Victory in 21 Days to the Insurgent Aftermath (Paperback)
John Keegan's reputation precedes him. Way back in the late 70s, he wrote the book "The Face of Battle", perhaps one of the most influential books of the modern era on military history. He's gone on since to write a series of topical books on Naval history, the nature of command in war, and other things of that sort, and also to do Conventional histories, of the World Wars and of warfare in general.
This current book is a departure for him. For one thing, it's barely history, dealing with a series of events only a few years past: the war in Iraq, its prelude, course, and aftermath. Keegan provides a succinct history of Iraq prior to Saddam, a thumbnail sketch of the dictator and his career in power, then moves to his wars with Iran and Kuwait. The war itself occupies the last half of the book, with a brief afterward covering the intervening year after the publication of the book. The book has many strengths: notably it's a good primer on the course of Iraqi history prior to the war, and to the Arab world and its view of the West.
If the book has a weakness, it's the fact that the regular, organized segment of the war gave way to the insurgency, which has continued since. While this insurgency isn't strong enough to overwhelm or eject American and Allied forces from Iraq, it is strong enough to inflict casualties and cause some upheaval in the host countries. Part of the difficulty is that things are happening as we speak: the book covers events in the epilog that have occurred in the last few months, elections in Iraq and the adoption of the constitution there.
This proviso aside, this is probably a very good introductory book on the war in Iraq, and I would recommend it.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
GOOD, May 3, 2010
This review is from: The Iraq War: The Military Offensive, from Victory in 21 Days to the Insurgent Aftermath (Paperback)
Great read, exactly what I was looking for! Keegan as always delivers an enjoyable account of the invasion of Iraq and the important backround to the conflict including a bio of Saddam and the history of Turkish rule of the area, great info on the baath party too.
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