The Strongest Tribe: War, Politics, and the Endgame in Iraq

During a winter night in 2005, al Queda in Iraq used the cloak of darkness to drape 49 black drapes over every street light in Baghdad central financial district. They hung the enormous black cloths with the impunity of a local VFW hanging flags for memorial day. The drapery was an ominous sign they had arrived and the nighttime belonged to al Queda. By January of 2008, al Queda was destroyed...more

During a winter night in 2005, al Queda in Iraq used the cloak of darkness to drape 49 black drapes over every street light in Baghdad central financial district. They hung the enormous black cloths with the impunity of a local VFW hanging flags for memorial day. The drapery was an ominous sign they had arrived and the nighttime belonged to al Queda. By January of 2008, al Queda was destroyed as a militia and on the run. The horrendous civil war ignited by the bombing of the Samara Mosque had run its course and the leaders of the Mahdi Army driven into exile. This was all accomplished by a nation divided by the war and the outright scorn of the American media. I am not sure enough time has lapsed since the darkest days of the Iraqi insurgency to analyze the mistakes and accomplishments of the war in Iraq, but this book is an excellent place to start. Iraq may not be a Jeffersonian democracy but it has the foundations for a secular Islamic state akin to the Republic of Turkey. Mass graves are no longer being filled by thuggish Bathists and suicide bombers are no longer being subsidized to kill Israelis. The Middle East is far more stable today than prior to 2003.   hide