'The End of Iraq' presents the definitive account of a failed American policy initiative that has resulted in the disintegration of that country and a more dangerous Middle East.
Iraq is broken. In the north, Kurdistan is an independent state in all but name. To the south, Shiite religious parties have created an Islamic state, parts of which are run with a strictness reminiscent of Afghanistan's Taliban regime. The Sunni Arab center of Iraq is a political vacuum. To the extent that there is any local authority at all, it belongs to tribal sheikhs, former Ba'athists, and al-Qaeda. Meanwhile Iran, formerly an implacable enemy of the country, has emerged as its strongest ally.
'The End of Iraq' examines how the Bush administration's flawed invasion plans produced these results. It looks at how little US policy-makers understood about Iraq before they tried to remake it. It shows how the US invaded Iraq in the belief that the regime could be decapitated and everyone would show up for work the next morning. Those devising the strategy never considered what would happen if the invasion did not work as planned -- if Iraqi society collapsed. There was no Plan B. The central problem now for the US and its allies, including Britain, is how to extricate themselves.
