Book review: The End of Iraq

Anyone interested in learning about what's going on in Iraq should read The End of Iraq. Peter Galbraith is one of the few people who has been involved in that hapless country from before the current Administration took over and has continued his involvement there.

Galbraith, therefore, has a fairly unique insider's viewpoint, and his insights, gleaned from his years of service, are quite starkly presented in this book.

Galbraith minces no words, whether regarding Saddam Hussein's intransigence and genocidal tendencies, or our government's short-sightedness and failures. Galbraith outlines, in a concise and quite readable manner, how Iraq's 3 ethnic and religious groups are ill-equipped to sustain a stable government, let alone behave as the first "democratic domino" for the region.

Galbraith's frank appraisal of Iraq's current instability is buttressed by his knowledge of the country's history, but more grippingly by his conversations and interviews of the Kurds, Shiites, and Sunnis he has interacted with over the years. His conclusions are so commonsensical as to beg the question: why would anyone think anything different could have happened once the US stepped in? (Galbraith answers that with conviction as well.)