Has anyone read Cobra II?

[Hamlette]

I'm only 1/3 of the way through it but its keeping my blood pressure up. It was talked about on TV some when it first came out but seems to have gone down the memory hole.

The first half of the book is frightening. The Bush admin was planning for the war in Iraq from 9/13 on. (Yes, they'd always wanted to do it, but planning in the sense of telling the military to draw up plans and get ready.)

And everyone save one idiot KNEW we needed more troops. But you know how everyone is saying the press has been cowered by this admin? So were the generals. Now, I know, you don't want to give the generals too much power or you run the risk of a coup but really, Tommy Franks and the like bowing down to Rummy when they knew it was wrong because they were afraid of him. Disgusting. (BTW, that is Franks' ONLY redeeming quality...that he knew we needed more troops and has apparently admitted it to the authors of this book. Oh, and I like his "salty" language. Other than that he is exactly why people like Bush get elected. He takes a DVD player with him everywhere, spends his free time buying and watching old war/violence laced movies...even on plane rides. I'm a movie buff so that alone wasn't so offensive...but I also read an average of a book a week and there is a HUGE difference between the kind of information and knowledge you get from books and what you get from old war movies. The man not only unintellectual, he is anti-intellectual. Bush types appeal to people like Franks. So far, I hate him. He took over his position from Zinni, in charge of the defense of the middle east (can't remember the name of his title) and he never once talked to Zinni after he took over. What an arrogant pig. Zinni and his people had spent lots of time figuring out the best way to invade Iraq if necessary, had whole plans drawn up. Franks never looked at them.)

Anyway, it is a great read. Like Assassin's Gate, if you want to know why we went to Iraq and how the war has been "prosecuted" both books are fascinating and upsetting. How the hell could we have been so dumg? Oh, and the difference in the books? Assassin's Gate is more about what the civilian command was doing in Iraq and how we got into the war. Cobra II is strictly (so far) the military's involvment. Two points of view of the same war. Fascinating. (Cobra II is available in audio book form, unabridged, for those of you who "read" more if you can listen...like me. Assasin's Gate is only available abridged...so I read the hard copy...on Christman vacation.)

[realFedUp]

1. I definitely want to read this...

will ask my library if they've ordered it yet.

[bullimiami]

2. cobra 2 - electric boogaloo?

couldnt help it.

[spindrifter]

3. Thanks for the tip

on this book.

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

4. Thanks for the review -- I'm waiting for the paperback

but it's very high on my list.

[Hamlette]

5. catch this....

Rummy said his plan was to leave keeping the peace and rebuilding to other Arab nations after we got rid of Saddam. At least Franks et al were smart enough to recognize that the Arab nations who supported us were Sunni and it wouldn't work for them to enforce the peace "against" the Shite majority.

There was NO plan for what would happen after we toppled Saddam AND there were tons of people screaming about not having a plan.

[exlrrp]

6. Reading this now

I'm reading this now, about halfway through, and its easy to see why there's a Revolt of the Retired Generals. If anyone says anything antiRumsfeld before he's retired, he's toast. Just like Shinseki (whicch the book goes into) You either follow Rummy's plan to the letter or YOURE OUTTA HERE!!
Whats really noteworthy here is how much the civilians interfered with the military. The (Democratic) government was excoriated by the Reps/Cons for the civilian involvement in Vietnam over the military, the fantasy is thatr if they had stayed out of the way, the military would have won the Vietnam War. The civilian meddling is even worse here, Rummy has changed the whole way the Army operates including acountability.
What it rerally reminds me of is the way Hitlers Generals redid the stats to make the Russian invasion sem more doable. Cobra II REALLY makes this point. The generals redid all their previous calculations, discarding long practices, to make Rummy's invasion seem do-able--and it WAS doable--untill after the invasion.
Thats when Rummy's "Conquer the World" Plan went astray. It was a fine invasion--and a rotten occupation, because they wwere running on neocons fantasies that Iraqis would turn into wonderful people, good Republicans overnight, like they were just eetching like bugs in fuzzy trees to becoame Republ;icans.
Rummy and the Repubs made little or no effoprt to plan for after the invasion. They thought the problems like Shiite-Sunni conflict would just all go away.
This book , although "neutral" gives Rummy's estimations of the war at that timee (40,00 men in 2 years and $40 billion spent) Too bad the media never shoves it in his face and never says: What the fuck??