A Brief History of the Iraq War: Gains, Defeats and Miscalculation

“That sentiment,” Burns concludes, “is not one that many critics of the war in the United States seem willing to accept, but neither does it offer the glimmer of cheer that it might seem to offer to many supporters of the war. For it would be passing strange, after the years of unrelenting bloodshed, if Iraqis demanded anything else. It is small credit to the invasion, after all it has cost, that Iraqis should arrive at a point when all they want from America is a return to something, stability, that they had under Saddam. For America, too, it is a deeply dispiriting prospect, promising no early end to the bleeding in Iraq.”

• Introduction
• Ending Saddam Hussein’s Regime
• Tallying the Toll of Saddam’s Stalinist Regime
• The Case for War: President Bush’s False Pretenses
• From Invasion to Insurgency
• An Occupation Driven by Politics, Not Reality
• Losing Sight of the War on Al-Qaeda
• The Middle East, Still Undemocratic
• Bush Embraces Low Expectations in Iraq
• An Uncertain Future