Preview
  • Fiasco

  • The American Military Adventure in Iraq
  • By: Thomas E. Ricks
  • Narrated by: James Lurie
  • Length: 10 hrs and 15 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (785 ratings)

Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Fiasco

By: Thomas E. Ricks
Narrated by: James Lurie
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $18.00

Buy for $18.00

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post senior Pentagon correspondant Thomas E. Ricks' Fiasco is masterful and explosive reckoning with the planning and execution of the American military invasion and occupation of Iraq, based on the unprecedented candor of key participants.

The American military is a tightly sealed community, and few outsiders have reason to know that a great many senior officers view the Iraq war with incredulity and dismay. But many officers have shared their anger with renowned military reporter Thomas E. Ricks, and in Fiasco, Ricks combines these astonishing on-the-record military accounts with his own extraordinary on-the-ground reportage to create a spellbinding account of an epic disaster.

As many in the military publicly acknowledge here for the first time, the guerrilla insurgency that exploded several months after Saddam's fall was not foreordained. In fact, to a shocking degree, it was created by the folly of the war's architects. But the officers who did raise their voices against the miscalculations, shortsightedness, and general failure of the war effort were generally crushed, their careers often ended. A willful blindness gripped political and military leaders, and dissent was not tolerated.

There are a number of heroes in Fiasco; inspiring leaders from the highest levels of the Army and Marine hierarchies to the men and women whose skill and bravery led to battlefield success in towns from Fallujah to Tall Afar, but again and again, strategic incoherence rendered tactical success meaningless. There was never any question that the U.S. military would topple Saddam Hussein, but as Fiasco shows, there was also never any real thought about what would come next. This blindness has ensured the Iraq war a place in history as nothing less than a fiasco.

Fair, vivid, and devastating, Fiasco is an audiobook whose tragic verdict feels definitive.

©2006 Thomas E. Ricks (P)2006 Penguin Audio, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
  • Abridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Critic reviews

"Staggeringly vivid and persuasive...absolutely essential reading." (Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times)

"The best account yet of the entire war." (Vanity Fair)

What listeners say about Fiasco

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    461
  • 4 Stars
    203
  • 3 Stars
    83
  • 2 Stars
    26
  • 1 Stars
    12
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    302
  • 4 Stars
    78
  • 3 Stars
    33
  • 2 Stars
    6
  • 1 Stars
    4
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    283
  • 4 Stars
    89
  • 3 Stars
    33
  • 2 Stars
    7
  • 1 Stars
    7

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Packed with Content

The author merely ties together material from interviews and 30,000 pages of declassified documents. He does this quite well. As a longtime Petagon coresondent, he had access. Any good writer who made the commitment to read and write about those 30,000 pages would have been interesting. This guy knew the names of the generals and even colonels and lower in the docs; for every interesting tidbit in them, he has an interview to expand on it.
He puts the whole thing together well from what you can tell was more than a pile of info.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Good idea, gone bad.

The message of this book isn't anti-war, or even anti-Iraqi war; rather, it is about how the U.S. has failed to develop and carry out a strategic plan for success there. Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz bear the primary responsibility, whose plan for the war assumed U.S. forces would be hailed as liberators and didn't provide for the insurgency that developed following the invasion. This book is well documented; it is a condemnation not the of the original idea of overthrowing Hussein, but of the colossal blunders that put us in the situation in which we now find ourselves. This is a "must read."

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

very good

Terrific close analysis of the arrogance and stupidity underlying the American decision to invade Iraq in 2003 and the tragic consequences for that country and America's military. Clear, well researched, and ultimately hugely prescient where ISIS is concerned.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Incisive Disturbing Necessary

This is a great book. Ricks is the only author I've read that discusses the "tone" of command. If your interested in what happened in Iraq and why, this is a book I highly recommend. Be prepared to be frustrated and disturbed however. I was. My only complaint is that it's abridged. Fiasco isn't really a strong enough word. James Lurie gives a great performance. I bought a used copy of the book to read the unabridged version. I've seldom listened to a more incisive analysis of the war in Iraq or a fairer one.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Well Written, But It Actually Needs More Politics

If you could sum up Fiasco in three words, what would they be?

Ricks' book is indeed a very well written, well researched account of the origins of the Second Iraq War up through mid - 2006 (pre-Surge). The author provides a thorough, detailed narrative of military actions, in particular the Ramadan Uprising and the two Battles for Fallujah. However, while Ricks does mention certain political events (ie.: the "Mission Accomplished" event and the "Bring It On" declaration), the book falls short because it does not take a deeper look at the impact that domestic politics had on the execution of the war. The run up to the war in late 2002 did, in fact, have an influence on the mid-term election; that increased majority in Congress provided the Bush administration with a more compliant Congress that was willing to support occupation without critical oversight; the management of the war was the key issue in the 2004 presidential campaign that, quite possibly, ensured the re-election of George Bush ("You don't want to change horses in mid-stream" "My opponent wants to cut-and-run"); and the deterioration of the occupation in 2005 - 06 ultimately led to the Democratic take-over of Congress in 2006, that forced the administration to launch the surge. (True, this is just after the book was published, but the major change in the political winds were quite evident by mid-2006.)

Wars, especially those involving the United States, do not occur in a vacuum. Politics play an influential role in the development and execution of military strategy, as thus should be considered when writing a comprehensive history of any military conflict.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Listen Closely

If you’re interested in what we’ve done politically & militarily to ruin our positive influence within the Middle East this is a must read/listen!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

History not Politics

Given the number of books designed for conservatives or liberals this book is refreshing in that it is not a bunch of political cheap shots - despite its harsh title. Anyone, who is truly familiar with the current military situation in Iraq and regardless of party affiliation must conclude that things are very bad for our troops. This book explains with the dispassionate tones of a history book (like "1776" which I also downloaded) relies on quotes, e-mails, interviews, newspaper columns/articles to relate the facts & opinions that brought us to this unfortunate point. I noted that President H.W.Bush is not mentioned in an inflammatory manner. Tellingly several people refused to make any comments to the author in defense of their actions. My favorite quote from the book was, "I don't want to be a Guinea pig for Rumsfield's new kind of war!" This book explains how war planners ended up making more enemies than friends by making assumptions, their lack of understanding of Iraqi culture, and having no plan to win and keep the peace. You come to realize that war is not easily won even by pros. I thought officers who could quote verbatim from ancient & modern war books was a figment of fiction writers, but they exist in our forces! There is also common sense. "Sir, what is the battleground?" asked one insightful soldier after the insurgency was in full swing. I won't spoil your listening by giving you the answers both by the officer or by the soldier. Expect many negative reviews by the very conservative due personal political agendas. I support our troops 100%. I only wish that they were not in this mess due to poor judgement, lack of a *complete* plan, and the plain ol' hubris outlined by the author of those who sent our beloved soldiers into harm's way with no plan to lead them back out. We have now rotated a total of about 300,000 troops in & out of Iraq. If we had gone IN with 300,000 the outcome might have been different.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

lots of content, well narrated

Scary, convincing, tightly written and so efficiently packed full of content that not a word is superfluous. Whoever thinks that Bush is simply a bumbling fool needs to listen to this--although Ricks never comes out and says he's dangerous (or does he?), you know he is after listening/reading this book. I'm surprised that none of the other reviewers so far have mentioned the fine narration: A dry style with a twist of irony, absolutely perfect for this book, the narrator sounded like he was sitting across from me, telling me something he himself had witnessed and quoting the players as if he'd been right there when they said it.

In short, important subject, well written and well narrated. I'd give it six stars if I could.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Wow

Ricks wears his biases on his sleeve, and this is on occasion annoying, but there are facts galore about the conduct of the war, and he hammers them home over and over until you're forced to concede the rightness of his cause.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

great

I love it it was great very good book yes good good good good very good

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!