No end in sight : Iraq's descent into chaos / Charles Ferguson

This book features interviews that expand upon, and bring up to date, the 2007 documentary "No End in Sight."

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Based on an unprecedented series of interviews with officials and others on the ground in Iraq immediately after the fall of Saddam Hussein, No End in Sight is a thorough chronicle of the reasons behind Iraq's descent into guerilla war, warlord rule, criminality, and anarchy. It is a shocking story of wholesale incompetence, recklessness, and arrogance. Culled from over two hundred hours of footage collected for the award-winning film-as well as additional, extraordinary interviews in response to it-the book provides an alarming retelling of the events following the fall of Baghdad in 2003. It features candid interviews with high-ranking officials such as former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and General Jay Garner, as well as Iraqi civilians, American soldiers, intelligence officers, and prominent analysts, such as George Packer, Samantha Power, and Christopher Hitchens. Together, these voices reveal the principal errors of U.S. policy-using insufficient troop levels, allowing the looting of Baghdad, purging professionals from the Iraqi government, and disbanding the Iraqi military-errors that largely created the insurgency and chaos that engulf Iraq today. The book brings the movie up-to-date by evaluating the military's recent "surge" tactic as well as current Administration policy. It concludes with a wide-ranging debate on the crucial question: What do we do now? No End in Sight marks the first time Americans will be allowed inside the White House, Pentagon, and Baghdad's Green Zone to understand for themselves what has become the disintegration of Iraq-and how arrogance and ignorance turned a military victory into a seemingly endless and deepening nightmare of a war. Book jacket.