Peter W. Galbraith

Reading this book early in the Obama presidency was probably just about the right timing. Written at the end of the Bush Administration, reading it two years later allowed enough time to judge many of the predictions Galbraith made about the turmoil and unrest in Iraq and the surrounding countries, and to see what came true, and what did not. Galbraith clearly was not a supporter of the war in Iraq, and tells us why. We've all heard the arguments, pros and cons, about the war, but what I found interesting was his vision of what was to come, as he wrote in 2008, and comparing that to what has occurred, now in 2011. I don't think he got everything right, but Galbraith does have a wealth of foreign policy experience, and his insights did give a fairly accurate projection of what Iraq and the Region would be like around this time. The dust hasn't settled yet on the conflict in Iraq or the region, but Galbraith did have some interesting insights, and much of what he envisioned does seem to have been borne out by the subsequent events.
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Peter Galbraith can not see any hope in continuing to work towards a united and secular Iraq and after reading this book I agree with him. Scathingly critical of the Bush administration for its constant blunders and prioritising cheap shallow PR gains for real strategies PG says that this is a war which the US can not win. He argues that Iraq is already at civil war and has effectively split into three states already. While he sees some ways forward in cartain areas the fact that he has no answers on how to deal with Baghdad, the increasing Iranian influence in the South or the international problems created by an increasingly independent Kurdistan suggest that we are all going to be hearing about this region for decades to come.… (altro)