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Degrade and Destroy: The Inside Story of the War Against the Islamic State
A top D.C. journalist tells the inside story of the U.S. war against the Islamic State
When the last U.S. combat troops left Iraq in 2011, President Obama took credit for keeping his promise to end one war. As savage violence flared in Syria that very same year, he resisted calls to intervene in another. His plan to reduce America’s provocative military presence in the Middle East would be faithfully executed. Five years later, the United States is again at war in the region—this time against the Islamic State, whose self-declared caliphate covers large tracts of Iraq and Syria. How did this happen? And how will the United States seek to prevail in this crucial return engagement?
In Degrade and Destroy, Michael R. Gordon, the bestselling author and The New York Times’s national security correspondent, reveals the debates, diplomacy, and military strategy that have shaped the struggle against the Islamic State. With extraordinary access to the White House, the intelligence community, the State Department, and the Pentagon, Gordon offers a riveting narrative. We see Hillary Clinton trying to arm the Syrian rebels; John Kerry coaxing reluctant allies; and U.S. war planners at work even as Russians, Turks, and others complicate or frustrate every move. The result is a crucial work of contemporary history that also exposes the vexing choices that confront the next president. The State Department has recently said it expects the struggle with ISIS to last three to five years.
When the last U.S. combat troops left Iraq in 2011, President Obama took credit for keeping his promise to end one war. As savage violence flared in Syria that very same year, he resisted calls to intervene in another. His plan to reduce America’s provocative military presence in the Middle East would be faithfully executed. Five years later, the United States is again at war in the region—this time against the Islamic State, whose self-declared caliphate covers large tracts of Iraq and Syria. How did this happen? And how will the United States seek to prevail in this crucial return engagement?
In Degrade and Destroy, Michael R. Gordon, the bestselling author and The New York Times’s national security correspondent, reveals the debates, diplomacy, and military strategy that have shaped the struggle against the Islamic State. With extraordinary access to the White House, the intelligence community, the State Department, and the Pentagon, Gordon offers a riveting narrative. We see Hillary Clinton trying to arm the Syrian rebels; John Kerry coaxing reluctant allies; and U.S. war planners at work even as Russians, Turks, and others complicate or frustrate every move. The result is a crucial work of contemporary history that also exposes the vexing choices that confront the next president. The State Department has recently said it expects the struggle with ISIS to last three to five years.
496 pages, Hardcover
First published June 14, 2022
50 people are currently reading
522 people want to read
About the author
Michael R. Gordon
6 books37 followersMICHAEL R. GORDON is the chief military correspondent for The New York Times, where he has worked since 1985. He is the coauthor, with Bernard E. Trainor, of The Generals' War and Cobra II.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
September 6, 2022
Michael R. Gordon wrote 2 of the best books about the 2003 US Iraq invasion and the ensuing occupation, "Cobra II" and "The End Game" so I was excited to see he had written one of the first analyses and recounting of the 2013-2021 US effort to contain and eventually destroy ISIS.
"Degrade & Destroy" does a fantastic job recounting how ISIS arose in months after the US ended its occupation of Iraq in 2011 and mixed foreign fighters and disaffected Iraqis to create an insurgent army that started with car bombs and assassinations in the Sunni provinces of Iraq but was soon taking over larger and larger Iraqi cities in a snowball of bloody chaos. The Iraqi authorities slowly and begrudgingly came to accept that they needed help from the US to counter. So just 3 years after the US left, the Obama administration started letting advisors and SOF enter Iraq to help the Iraqis, but that led to increasing US air support and after ISIS had been forced out of the major Iraqi cites like Mosul, several thousand US Marines, SOF and others would help the Iraqis chase ISIS over into Syria where the US then backed a non-Assad aligned group in destroying ISIS in Syria.
Before it was over the theater would see large interventions by the Iranians and the Russian military with the US and Russia going to extreme lengths to insure that no combat accidents between the 2 countries happened that might spiral out of control. Even then, a rather mysterious and never owned up to assault by the Russian mercenaries, the Wagner Group on a US position ended in the US unleashing an hours long barrage on the Russian column that killed hundreds of Russians. A crazy incident that was barely covered in the US and both sides seemed to pretend did not happen.
"Degrade & Destroy" does a fantastic job recounting how ISIS arose in months after the US ended its occupation of Iraq in 2011 and mixed foreign fighters and disaffected Iraqis to create an insurgent army that started with car bombs and assassinations in the Sunni provinces of Iraq but was soon taking over larger and larger Iraqi cities in a snowball of bloody chaos. The Iraqi authorities slowly and begrudgingly came to accept that they needed help from the US to counter. So just 3 years after the US left, the Obama administration started letting advisors and SOF enter Iraq to help the Iraqis, but that led to increasing US air support and after ISIS had been forced out of the major Iraqi cites like Mosul, several thousand US Marines, SOF and others would help the Iraqis chase ISIS over into Syria where the US then backed a non-Assad aligned group in destroying ISIS in Syria.
Before it was over the theater would see large interventions by the Iranians and the Russian military with the US and Russia going to extreme lengths to insure that no combat accidents between the 2 countries happened that might spiral out of control. Even then, a rather mysterious and never owned up to assault by the Russian mercenaries, the Wagner Group on a US position ended in the US unleashing an hours long barrage on the Russian column that killed hundreds of Russians. A crazy incident that was barely covered in the US and both sides seemed to pretend did not happen.
August 3, 2022
Gordon bites off a lot to chew here but I think succeeded: an entire war in all its complexities, relayed in a way that kept my attention. As someone who participated in much of this war from 2017-2020, I found his narrative thorough, balanced, and accurate.
May 25, 2023
Michael Gordon delivers yet another facts-first, thorough history of recent American military operations in the Middle East. In reviewing the role of the US in defeating ISIS, Gordon weaves together a disparate narrative of local and superpower forces converging on Iraq and Syria in order to accomplish all sorts of objectives, from the petty and menial to the grandly strategic.
The book chronicles the wobbly state of Iraq after the American armed forces' exit from the country in 2011 under Barack Obama and continuing through the end days of the Trump administration. While the popular narrative colored the operation in terms of Obama's hesitation to use force and Trump's "bomb them into the sand" mentality, the on-the-ground reality is much less neat. While the Obama administration's force caps and rules of engagement force accounting chicanery and limitations on the part of US advisers in Iraq, Obama does deserve credit for crafting and implementing the counterinsurgency strategy that ultimately leans into local forces, minimizes US casualties, and defeats the ISIS caliphate. Trump, while rhetorically bombastic, largely adheres to the Obama plan until the sudden departure from the region, leaving a vacuum filled by the likes of Russia, Assad's Syria, and Iran.
Gordon's book certainly implies that there should be a more robust, boots-on-the-ground role for America in troubled zones like the Middle East. The problem, of course, is the short-term vicious cycle - while there is wide agreement that ISIS presented humanitarian concerns and possible threats to the West, the US lacks the clear casus belli of other conflicts that strengthens the resolve of the homeland. The American military shines in tactics and logistics; its leadership and overall strategy appears less glorious and more certain to strand US forces in quagmires beyond our ability to control.
The book chronicles the wobbly state of Iraq after the American armed forces' exit from the country in 2011 under Barack Obama and continuing through the end days of the Trump administration. While the popular narrative colored the operation in terms of Obama's hesitation to use force and Trump's "bomb them into the sand" mentality, the on-the-ground reality is much less neat. While the Obama administration's force caps and rules of engagement force accounting chicanery and limitations on the part of US advisers in Iraq, Obama does deserve credit for crafting and implementing the counterinsurgency strategy that ultimately leans into local forces, minimizes US casualties, and defeats the ISIS caliphate. Trump, while rhetorically bombastic, largely adheres to the Obama plan until the sudden departure from the region, leaving a vacuum filled by the likes of Russia, Assad's Syria, and Iran.
Gordon's book certainly implies that there should be a more robust, boots-on-the-ground role for America in troubled zones like the Middle East. The problem, of course, is the short-term vicious cycle - while there is wide agreement that ISIS presented humanitarian concerns and possible threats to the West, the US lacks the clear casus belli of other conflicts that strengthens the resolve of the homeland. The American military shines in tactics and logistics; its leadership and overall strategy appears less glorious and more certain to strand US forces in quagmires beyond our ability to control.
June 28, 2022
Released two weeks ago today, top Washington, D.C. journalist and (my words) war correspondent/historian Michael Gordon weaves together a compelling and definitive account of the rise of the Islamic State (ISIS) and the history of Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR).
On the heels of the last combat troops leaving Iraq in 2011–one of President Obama’s campaign pledges—another conflict arose in nearby Syria the same year. That, coupled in January of that year of the self immolation of Tunisian street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi would kick off the Arab Spring across the region. The vacuum left by the US troop withdrawal would lead three years later to the very public and meteoric rise of ISIS. Their self-declared caliphate and brutal battlefield tactics, tenacity and barbarity—in concert with savvy social media—put the world on edge as they expanded their reach conquering and killing everything and everyone in their path.
Gordon’s account includes first-hand interviews of prominent US players Hillary Clinton, John Kerry and others, and reveals the complex diplomacy and a struggling by-with-and-through strategy executed through (OIR). Gordon would travel to the Middle East and talk with the experts literally involved in the execution of the operation and those calling the shots from afar such as Lloyd Austin, Mike Nagata, Stephen Townsend, Joseph Votel, and also later include players such as HR McMaster, John Bolton, Martin Dempsey and Jim Mattis.
Dealings with other countries like Russia and Turkey would further add to the complexity in defeating ISIS. A great read!
On the heels of the last combat troops leaving Iraq in 2011–one of President Obama’s campaign pledges—another conflict arose in nearby Syria the same year. That, coupled in January of that year of the self immolation of Tunisian street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi would kick off the Arab Spring across the region. The vacuum left by the US troop withdrawal would lead three years later to the very public and meteoric rise of ISIS. Their self-declared caliphate and brutal battlefield tactics, tenacity and barbarity—in concert with savvy social media—put the world on edge as they expanded their reach conquering and killing everything and everyone in their path.
Gordon’s account includes first-hand interviews of prominent US players Hillary Clinton, John Kerry and others, and reveals the complex diplomacy and a struggling by-with-and-through strategy executed through (OIR). Gordon would travel to the Middle East and talk with the experts literally involved in the execution of the operation and those calling the shots from afar such as Lloyd Austin, Mike Nagata, Stephen Townsend, Joseph Votel, and also later include players such as HR McMaster, John Bolton, Martin Dempsey and Jim Mattis.
Dealings with other countries like Russia and Turkey would further add to the complexity in defeating ISIS. A great read!
July 8, 2022
This book covers events that I was very familiar with from coverage in the Wall Street Journal and cable news as they occurred. It is very helpful to have them brought together in an accessible book by an objective (as far as I can tell) reporter who was on the scene for much of the time.
I feel bad for the U.S service men who had to live through the horrible conditions. The suffering of the locals was much worse. The actions and motivation of the ISIS leaders and fighters are despicable. Gordon's writing does make you understand that their techniques were more sophisticated and effective than they have been given credit for.
The role of politicians from all parties involved were often self-serving and unfair to the military who had to carry out their orders. No surprise there.
Above all, this reminds us that there are no easy answers. The world is not about to become peaceful in our lifetime and probably never. You do not want another U.S. solder to lose their life or limbs in any overseas conflict but withdrawing from the world is also unacceptable.
I feel bad for the U.S service men who had to live through the horrible conditions. The suffering of the locals was much worse. The actions and motivation of the ISIS leaders and fighters are despicable. Gordon's writing does make you understand that their techniques were more sophisticated and effective than they have been given credit for.
The role of politicians from all parties involved were often self-serving and unfair to the military who had to carry out their orders. No surprise there.
Above all, this reminds us that there are no easy answers. The world is not about to become peaceful in our lifetime and probably never. You do not want another U.S. solder to lose their life or limbs in any overseas conflict but withdrawing from the world is also unacceptable.
December 30, 2022
Random list of stuff I found interesting:
• The Iraqis were in a sorrow state when attacked by ISIS
• Iraqi army were divided between the army, the CTS (counter terrorism) and a police force
• CTS use to be effective, but was in poor state when ISIS was declared in 2014
• Mosul was important - ISIS made the Iraqi army run away, which initiated US respond
• US and Obama was reluctant to put Americans on the ground
• Americans would not cooperate with Malaki. Became better when Abadi took over.
• Much fighting was by US airforce
• ISIS had drones with bombs, which was countered by mobile jamming system
• Americans advised Iraqi leaders, but the ladder called the shots, sometimes contrary to the advise, which the US then lobbied for.
• Americans actually fought the Wagner group in a confusing moment
• Things really became weird with many changed decisions with Trump
• Turkey was very aggressive against the US allies SDF in Syria as they were Kurds to the benefit of ISIS
• The Iraqis were in a sorrow state when attacked by ISIS
• Iraqi army were divided between the army, the CTS (counter terrorism) and a police force
• CTS use to be effective, but was in poor state when ISIS was declared in 2014
• Mosul was important - ISIS made the Iraqi army run away, which initiated US respond
• US and Obama was reluctant to put Americans on the ground
• Americans would not cooperate with Malaki. Became better when Abadi took over.
• Much fighting was by US airforce
• ISIS had drones with bombs, which was countered by mobile jamming system
• Americans advised Iraqi leaders, but the ladder called the shots, sometimes contrary to the advise, which the US then lobbied for.
• Americans actually fought the Wagner group in a confusing moment
• Things really became weird with many changed decisions with Trump
• Turkey was very aggressive against the US allies SDF in Syria as they were Kurds to the benefit of ISIS
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 28, 2022
Extremely comprehensive look at the Iraq war from 2011 and forward.
Want to read
July 21, 2022[led here by TV interview with author and relation to current events]
August 23, 2022
A very well-reported story on a war that most Americans were bored of by this point.
August 24, 2022
Good book. Probably 4.5. Gordon has a tendency to editorialize
October 16, 2023
Reviewing for a journal. Will post review when finished. But a very good book for people interested in War on Terror, Iraq War, Islamic State etc from one of the best journalists in these fields.
October 10, 2024
A very good albeit US centric tackling of an important topic.
July 16, 2022
Awesome. A fine ending to his trilogy on America’s 20 year war in Iraq.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews