A review by skitch41
The Gamble: General David Petraeus and the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006-2008 by Thomas E. Ricks

4.0

A great follow up to his previous book on the Iraq war, Fiasco, Ricks shows how American troops, led by Gens. David Petraeus and Ray Odierno, did a complete 180º turn in terms of strategy and brought a relative amount of security to the country. Ricks also added something that I thought was lacking from his previous book: short, biographical info on key figures like Petraeus, Odierno and Keane. And, just like before, Ricks has a knack for illustrating the facts both on the ground and in the hallways of power. Strangely though, I found this book to be far more lacking in in-depth details and reflections than Fiasco, especially in part 3. Although he makes up for it in the epilogue, I felt that Ricks could have said more than he did on the surge's consequences before the epilogue. He probably was hampered by the fact that he had little time to finish the book before publishing it (1-3 months by my guess) and because we still aren't sure what the lasting consequences of the surge are. Having said that, Ricks once again shows that he is the authority on what has been going on, both good and bad, in Iraq.