Cobra II
by Michael R. Gordon and General Bernard E. Trainor
Published by Vintage Books, A division of Random House
Click on book
cover to order
at Amazon.com
Reviewed by Debra Kiefat
Subtitled: The inside story of the invasion and occupation of Iraq
Cobra II is a dense, informative research project focused on the invasion and occupation of Iraq. Michael R. Gordon and General Bernard E. Trainor, Ret., invested their time and energy to bring to light the highs and lows of military strategy in the rarely seen day-to-day operations of the Oval Office and Pentagon.
Gordon is the chief military correspondent for The New York Times, where he has worked since 1985. He has covered the Iraq War, the American intervention in Afghanistan, the Kosovo conflict, the Russian war in Chechnya, the 1991 Persian Gulf War, and the American invasion of Panama.
General Trainor, a retired three-star Marine Corps general, served as the military correspondent for the New York Times from 1986 to 1990. As a military consultant for ABC News, he currently serves as the Director of National Security Programs at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government and writes a weekly column on military affairs for the New York Times news service.
Pulled from multiple interviews with high-level officials and military commanders, as well as publicized accounts from the news headlines, Gordon and Trainor flesh out the reasons why the Bush administration chose to invade Iraq and the consequences of transforming military strategies the Pentagon had in place since the Civil War into a leaner ground force that was supposed to be as effective as a larger one.
Regardless of what the reader's politics or beliefs are about the Iraq war, Cobra II reveals that when history repeats itself how egos, suppositions and war rarely result in a positive outcome.
Armchair Interviews says: Worth the effort to read for the average citizen to become more informed.