The initial US strategy in Iraq can be characterized as protect yourself at all costs, focus on killing the enemy and treat the Iraqi civilians as the playing field upon which the contest occurs. Thomas Ricks in The Gamble delineates the major changes in strategy that accompanied the surge in Iraq. Detail those changes and explain how those relate to indirect counterinsurgency. Which do you think are specifically related to the US failure in Vietnam? Would you characterize Iraq as a success now and why?
Sources for Thomas Ricks’ “The Gamble”:
– First two chapters attached below
– https://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/10/books/10kaku.html
– https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gamble_(book)
– https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4580836-the-gamble
– https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/mar/08/war-review-gamble-thomas-ricks
– https://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-et-rutten10-2009feb10-story.html
– Feel free to use any other sources as well!
