Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq | 
 enlarge | Authors: Michael R. Gordon, Bernard E. Trainor
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: $16.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  96 reviews
Sales Rank: 27756
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 784
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.2 x 1.8
ISBN: 1400075394
Dewey Decimal Number: 956.70443
EAN: 9781400075393
ASIN: 1400075394
Publication Date: February 27, 2007
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Product Description
Written by the chief military correspondent of the New York Times and a prominent retired Marine general, this is the definitive account of the invasion of Iraq.
A stunning work of investigative journalism, Cobra II describes in riveting detail how the American rush to Baghdad provided the opportunity for the virulent insurgency that followed. As Gordon and Trainor show, the brutal aftermath was not inevitable and was a surprise to the generals on both sides. Based on access to unseen documents and exclusive interviews with the men and women at the heart of the war, Cobra II provides firsthand accounts of the fighting on the ground and the high-level planning behind the scenes. Now with a new afterword that addresses what transpired after the fateful events of the summer of 2003, this is a peerless re-creation and analysis of the central event of our times.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 91 more reviews...
 A Book Well Worth It's Weight... July 23, 2008
Although some may say this book is "too detailed" or "too boring to read", I would say that that is what you'd want from a hot topic that is at the top of the news every day.
Aside from enjoying the book because I was there in 2003 during the invasion, I enjoy how the authors paint a picture of what was happening at different levels. We read about the strategic planning done by the President and the Secretary of Defense, down to the operational level with the war planners at USCENTCOM, and down further to the tactical level with the soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines in the trenches. We get to be the "fly on the wall" as we learn what was discussed in the war room and feel the gutsy calls by the commanders in the field taking Baghdad, block by block.
I recommend this book for anyone involved in the conflict or those who wish to get an account of how the planning to invade Iraq went down. Whether you're for or against the war, this is a good read to expand your knowledge base of what's going on right now in the Middle East.
-GM
Gregory M. Kuzma
Author, On the field from Denver, Colorado...The Blue Knights!: One member's experience of the 1994 summer national tour (N)
 An excellent in depth analysis of the war in Iraq May 6, 2008
The authors have done an exhaustive resource that provides the reader with most of the background for the preparation of the invasion of Iraq and its subsequent developments.
A very interesting book.
Too bad Petraeus wasn't in charge 5 years ago... April 8, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
"Having failed to prepare for post-combat burdens, undertaken the war with the minimal acceptable forces, and canceled the deployment of badly needed reinforcements, the Bush Administration compounded the problem by disbanding the Iraqi army, putting more than 300,000 armed men on the streets, and denying local elections that would have allowed the Iraqis a measure of control over their own affairs."
Not to mention the oversold and flat wrong reasons we went to war in the first place.
The men who wrote these words are Lt. General Bernard E. Trainor (Marine Corps, ret.) and Michael R. Gordon, chief military correspondent for the New York Times. No knee-jerk Bush-bashers, the authors also wrote what is considered to be the definitive history of the first Persian Gulf War, a book Dick Cheney recommends to his friends. I'm surprised to report that a definitive history of the US invasion and occupation of Iraq, is here in our hands. Already. And the war is still going on.
Written with military precision but with little jargon, Cobra II swoops and dives between the blinding dust of desert warfare and faraway, high-level, secure conference rooms in Washington DC and coalition headquarters in Kuwait. It's the difference between flying at a strategic 50,000 feet and rolling with the grunts in the 2nd Brigade Combat Team that surprised everyone by showing up in downtown Baghdad before they were supposed to. Reading Cobra II, you've got to love the American soldier. These are the men and women who arrived in Nasiriyah, short on sleep, having been told to prepare for parades with the city fathers, but are instead confronted with the Fedayeen and their rocket propelled grenades and AK-47s, the "insurgents" of today. US soldiers and field commanders adapted and did their job. The top brass, primarily Donald Rumsfeld, General Tommy Franks and George W. Bush, did not.
Stronger at the 50,000 foot level, as when telling the tale of the immense and impressive planning effort that began in late 2001 or when describing the battles between field commanders and Franks, the authors present, in well documented and annotated detail the invasion's story and the increasingly evident five major strategic blunders on the part of the war's planners and managers. "Rumsfeld and his generals misread their foe by viewing the invasion of Iraq largely as a continuation of the Persian Gulf War....the CIA was not only wrong on WMD, but failed to identify the importance of the Fedayeen." Or "the troops' training and the leadership in the field and at the allied land command paid off. But the American war plan was never adjusted on high. Tommy Franks never acknowledged the enemy he faced, nor did he comprehend the nature of the war he was directing." It's evident, that despite Franks' later claim of credit for the winning war strategy, he got us to Baghdad but that's about it. Now what?
Marine Lieutenant Therral "Shane" Childers, veteran of the first Gulf War, was leading a platoon in the early hours of the invasion in southern Iraq. Across the desert, a single, tan Toyota pickup truck sped towards them. The Marines held their fire since they were told to engage Iraqi armor, not civilians in pickups. The Iraqis raised their AK-47s and sprayed the Marines with bullets, one of which killed Childers. He was the first American soldier killed in enemy action. Prophetically, he was killed by insurgents, not by Saddam's Republican Guard. Too bad we didn't pick up on that.
Read this book. It's your duty to be well-informed.
Cobra 2 April 5, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
Amazing book full of very detailed accounts of the planning of the Iraq war and actual battles during the invasion. Stories in this book that i have not heard anywhere else. Being an Iraq war vet myself, I really enjoyed this book.
 THIS BOOK WEIGHS EIGHT AND A HALF POUNDS March 6, 2008
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
An academic asked to review a ponderous tome of literary criticism penned one of the the best short reviews ever, when he said, "This book weighs 17 pounds." The problem with Cobra II is not that it is inaccurate in its tale of how the easy military conquest of Iraq turned into a complicated and sticky insurgency. It is not wrong in its judgement that those in the field increasingly "got it" while their superiors in Washington did not. It is that the tale is told in such overwhelming detail and in such a boring way that slogging through it becomes a chore instead of a pleasure. A look at Fiasco, which is nearly equally detailed, shows how a similar narrative, fair but impassioned, keeps the reader turning pages.
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