Cobra II: Inside Story of the Invasion & Occupation of Iraq

Cobra II : The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq
by Michael R. Gordon, Bernard E. Trainor

Reporter Michael Gordon was in the war room with Tommy Franks, Donald Rumsfeld, and various field generals during the planning and execution of the war in Iraq. For Cobra II (which was the code name for the second Iraq War) Gordon and Coauthor General Bernard Trainor have combined this firsthand experience with interviews with an extraordinary range of officials, classified military and diplomatic documents, military archives, and internal after-action reports and oral histories for a comprehensive account of the planning and prosecution of the Iraq war.

ABOUT THIS BOOK

The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq

There have been many reports about the Iraq war and the vicissitudes of the American occupation, yet none heretofore has been informed by the inside story. Rendered fairly and documented impressively, it offers a galvanizing account of the strategy, the personalities, the actual battles, the diplomacy, the adversary, and the occupation.

COBRA II is stunning work of investigative journalism by Michael Gordon, the chief military correspondent of The New York Times, winner of the George Polk Award for Investigative Reporting in 1989 and the one and only correspondent embedded in Allied land command; and General Bernard E. Trainor, former military correspondent for The New York Times and current military analyst for NBC. Brimming with new and compromising disclosures, the book promises to be a singularly authoritative and comprehensive account of the planning and prosecution of the Iraq war.

Michael Gordon had unparallel access to top military brass and was in the war room with Tommy Franks, Donald Rumsfeld and the field generals who were key in the formulation and execution of the war strategy. He has interviewed an extraordinary range of officials, including Franks himself, Condoleezza Rice, Steve Hadley, Paul Wolfowitz, Marc Grossman (the third ranking State Department official), Jerry Bremer, General Meyers (Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff), as well as virtually every general, regimental commander and brigade commander. He has had access to classified military and diplomatic documents, military archives and internal after-action reports and oral histories not meant for public consumption.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:

Michael Gordon is the chief military correspondent for The New York Times. Since he joined the newspaper in 1985, he has covered arms control, the proliferation of nuclear and chemical weapons and other security issues. Mr. Gordon has been posted in Washington, Moscow and London and has covered the United States intervention in Afghanistan, the Persian Gulf War, the Kosovo conflict, NATO's military deployment in Macedonia, the U.S. invasion of Panama and the Russian invasion of Chechnya, among other conflicts. Mr. Gordon is the co-author, along with Bernard E. Trainor, of The Generals' War, a critically acclaimed account of the Persian Gulf conflict.

Bernard E. Trainor, a retired Marine Corps lieutenant general, was a military correspondent for The New York Times from 1986-1990. He was the Director of the National Security Program at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University from 1990-1996. Currently a military analyst for NBC, Trainor lives in Potomac Falls, Virginia.

Cobra 2: At last, the unvarnished truth about the American invasion and occupation of Iraq.

• When and how was the war strategy formed? What were the disputes among the generals and the differences between the field commanders and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld?

• How did Rumsfeld seek to monopolize war planning, and what was his relationship to the rest of the Bush administration?

• What was the basic strategic assumption of the war plan, and how was it flawed?

• How wide off the mark was the CIA in its assessments?

• What was the military strategy of the Iraqis, and how was it misread?

• What role did General Tommy Franks really play in the prosecution of the war?

• What were the principal battles, and what has so far not been revealed about them?

• How much friction was there between the Americans and the British?

• Which Arab nations that publicly criticized the war privately supported it?

• What opportunity to stabilize Iraq after the fall of Saddam presented itself, and why was it not seized?

• What do the Balkans, Haiti, Somalia, and Afghanistan have to do with the Bush administration's plans for postwar Iraq?

• How could the insurgency have been dampened, if not outright prevented?

REVIEWS:

A sure fire bestseller, March 14, 2006
Reviewer: Robert Busko (Laurinburg, NC USA)

I must say that having almost completed Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq that I'm relieved by the fairness of the book. While it does point up an abundant list of mistakes in judgement by those at the highest levels of the command structure, it also makes clear that war is a foggy business at best. It is my opinion only that Cobra II avoids the pitfalls and traps by staying as impartial as possible. I found no axe being ground for either the right or the left.

I am also impressed by the degree of access to materials that Gordon must have had access to. I know that the prepub releases mentioned that Gordon had unprecedented access to both reports and personnel in researching this book. That is even more apparent as you read through the content. Gordon, who is chief military correspondent for the New York Times does a masterful job of telling the story of the Iraq War. Retired General Trainor, a Marines Marine, lends his insight and expertise and I'm sure made sure that Gordon stayed on task.

All together, Cobra II is a masterful book, written by two experienced individuals....experts in their respective fields. I think you will feel informed in a way that perhaps you haven't felt in the past after reading this book. You'll want to read this one.
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a truly non-partisan book, March 14, 2006
Reviewer: arnold leftik "book lover" (boca raton, fl USA)

When you finish this book you will be both proud and ashamed of the people who are in high positions in government. The authors have written an exciting and historical book about the Iraq war. The book details the planning (or lack of), execution and post invasion of the Iraq war. This book, I hope, will be a big national bestseller. All of us should read it to fully comprehend what has happened to our country.