Tell Me How This Ends: General David Petraeus and the Search for a Way Out of Iraq

by Linda Robinson

After a series of disastrous missteps in its conduct of the war, the White House in 2006 appointed General David Petraeus as the Commanding General of the coalition forces. Tell Me How This Ends is an inside account of his attempt to turn around a failing war.

Linda Robinson conducted extensive interviews with Petraeus and his subordinate commanders and spent weeks with key U.S. and Iraqi divisions. The result is the only book that ties together military operations in Iraq and the internecine political drama that is at the heart of the civil war.

Replete with dramatic battles, behind-doors confrontations, and astute analysis, the book tells the full story of the Iraq War’s endgame, and lays out the options that will be facing the next president when he or she takes office in January 2009.

Genres: Military Fiction, Nonfiction, History, Politics, Middle East, Military History, War

432 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Robert · Rating 1 out of 5]

The importance of this book for me lay in its descriptions of the horrors of the surge in Baghdad. We need to confront this kind of reporting, and reality. The author's hard and dangerous labor excavating this material is undermined, however, by two factors: first, she often recounts horrific injuries and deaths without pausing to appraise the meaning of those sacrifices for the individual in question, the family, etc. In one case two soldiers were incinerated in a Bradley fighting vehicle; their remains, we are told, had to be scraped out of it. But then the story moves on, pursuing the dominant theme, which in itself is an unsettling factor, i.e., General Petraeus somehow understood that we needed to go through this to achieve our end; General Petraeus is an epic individual cast in the mold of our greatest general-leaders... So the book is a bit of a hagiography in which a celebrity figure is praised and lesser folk--although their demise is graphically reported--are sacrificed.

I think there are times, and this is one of them, when the United States needs to consider how gruesome its national security policy looks on the naked page.

[CHAD FOSTER · Rating 1 out of 5]

Yet another borderline hagiography of one of our nation’s military leaders who, despite the praise heaped upon him by the likes of Tom Ricks and the author herself, is among the least worthy of recognition.

David Petraeus was (is) a charlatan of the first order. Not because of his illicit affair with a biographer, but because of his deliberate campaign to make population-centric counterinsurgency the central concept around which we train, organize, equip, and educate our military forces. This snake oil sales pitch was closely tied to his own overriding motive of self-promotion. For all his claims to the contrary, Petraeus was as rigid and narrow-minded a thinker as there is in uniform. He and his sycophants would level this baseless criticism of anyone who didn’t buy-in completely to their ideology: “He just doesn’t get it.” That charge ended the careers of quite a few good leaders who were at least as qualified to lead as Petraeus.

The damage that David Petraeus did - and continues to do through the fading gasps of his cult of followers who remain in uniform - I think will be calculated heavily in the years to come. Linda Robinson’s book was written when Petraeus was the “in” guy. He wasn’t a free thinker. He was (and is) a fraud.

The anecdote about him asking a potential candidate for his staff, “what poetry are you reading?” sums it up. Petraeus didn’t care about poetry. He just wanted to further his chosen image as an eccentric, free-thinking intellectual. He was none of those things. His rigidity regarding population centric counterinsurgency showed that to anyone who bothered to look. Petraeus’ obsession with “messaging” (which is touched on in the book) is symptomatic of his personality: style over substance; ‘message’ over reality.

If you want a better book, read “The Fourth Star.” It gives a more accurate picture of David Petraeus than this one.

[liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good fuel to the fire of my deep and abiding love for David Petraeus (not that it really needed the help). Also, as kind of a leftist/pacifist, this was useful for an alternate view of the military, which I tend to assume is made up mainly of kids with few-to-no ways out of the less-than-ideal circumstances in which they grew up. Nope, in this world of David Petraeus everyone (including the general himself) has advanced degrees. It was good for me to read this depiction of the military, but also disappointing that the issues around torture were never discussed. It was a good and engrossing read, but once I put the book down the gaps started showing through pretty quickly.

After an article by Ralph Peters appeared criticizing the draft [counter-insurgency manual:] for taking too soft an approach to fighting insurgents, and Petraeus's four-star superior advocated qualifying the stark language of the paradoxes, Petraeus ordered modifications over Crane's strenuous objections. Thus, the final paradoxes read: "Sometimes, the more force is used, the less effective it is," and "Some of the best weapons for counterinsurgents do not shoot," which is a less elegant rendering than the unqualified originals. Petraeus's favorite aphorism, "Money is ammunition," which he had coined in Mosul, remained untouched. T.E. Lawrence's maxim, "Do not try to do too much with your own hands" was reformulated as "The host nation doing something tolerably is normally better than us doing it well."

[Eamonnpryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is rather biographical regarding Petraeus, which is helpful because he was in charge of the iraq war and is now even higher in the army's ranking hiearchy. The other was a little bit of a fangirl about him, making assumptions one way about his character when others wouldn't have, but otherwise this novel is an incredible look at the Iraq war. It genuinely scared me at times, and made me understand from a broader point of view why officers and the general in charge have made the decisions they have (even if they were wrong). Great read for anyone interested in what has happened in Iraq, but it can be a little too detailed at times

[Humdum · Rating 5 out of 5]

For me this was a much better representation of what has happened in Iraq recently than what I get in magazines and newspapers. The stories of what individual troop commanders are doing as well as Petraeus's dealings with the Iraqi government were most helpful. I read this book immediately following Woodward's "The War Within". Combined they made me feel better about what the US is now doing in Iraq now.
Being willing to admit not knowing how it will end seems to me to be a first step in working through the current set of problems.

[Graham · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was tough timing for this book. In part because it was written too prematurely. In hindsight a this work as a history is not very useful. It really doesn't enlighten anything that one wouldn't already know by being moderately aware of the news. For future generations I don't think this is the definitive account of Americas involvement in Iraq. Even now, so few years after Patraeus' departure we know how the story really ends. It does occasionally bring up valid points. I am especially surprised at how small the army really is.

[Diane · Rating 5 out of 5]

In-depth history of the "surge" in Iraq, and General David Petraeus' role in it, by a former newspaper reporter. The book is well-researched and very readable. I would recommend a different subtitle, one which gives proper credit to Ambassador Ryan Crocker and his interlocutors.

[Amanda Standerfer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was not as good as the many other books I've read about Iraq and the war...but is one of the better studies of leadership in the military and specifically what Petraeus has done to get things moving in a positive direction. This book does give a great overview of all the working parts in Iraq and how the do and don't work together. The last chapter with the author's recommendations for how it ends in Iraq is very good...and much of what she wrote has been followed.

[Aubrey Dustin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an insightful study of the general's long sustained effort grappling with the complexities of counterinsurgency in Iraq. Beginning as a successful forger of alliances between local leadership with US forces in Mosul during the first year of the struggle to heading the effort to train the new Iraqi military to directing the turning point from the headquarters in Baghdad, he empowered subordinate leadership and recruited and developed experts.

[Troy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good review of the situation up through fall 2008. Seemed organized so that the chapters were stand-alone, but it caused a lot of the themes and events (and especially acronyms) to be repeated ad nauseum. However, for the most part, an easy read that clearly demonstrates a lot of the issues and challenges surrounding the war in Iraq.

[Jack · Rating 5 out of 5]

...the Petraeus turn-around of Iraq, from the surge, to the adoption of a holistic counter-insurgency strategy that led to the Awakening and the Sons of Iraq. The book covers the high level political battles to the soldiers on the ground. Although Petraeus may have provided a critical chapter in Iraq, it is still uncertain how it will ultimately end.

[Tin Wee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good account of how Petraeus, and the officers and soldiers of the US -led forces had sought to turn the war around in Iraq. Provides good insight into understanding the American intent behind their actions in the Iraq war, esp leading up to the surge, and the personalities that led the actions on the ground. History will be the judge of how this effort will turn out.

[Marcelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was terribly curious about Gen. Petraeus and how he brought a change to the Iraqi war. This has a bit more detail than I can wade through - you'd have to be military to understand all of it but I'm still reading it and still finding things out.

[Shaun White · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was very informative but the language was not clear to me and i would be suprised if any one without a military backround could understand it. The only thing that i liked about this book is that it exposed how deeply corrupt the U.S. government was during the Bush era.

[Amarantha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome book. General Petraeus is really smart (well-educated) and admirable. Probably the best general today. It's a great book. Personally, Indonesian generals should learn from him rather than doing corruption.

[Grey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not only a detailed look into the conduct of the last couple of years of the war in Iraq, but good insight into the personalities finishing up in Iraq and turning the tide in Afghanistan.

[Peter Nickeas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book. I don't think there's a be-all-end-all book about the Iraq war but I do think this fits in well with Fiasco / The Gamble and maybe a couple others as essential reading.

[Dave Beeman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read the last chapter for the answer. Rest of book covers subordinates carrying out plans and polices distributed from higher headquarters.

[Thomas B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading it in 2014 is a lot like watching the doomed love interest investigate the creepy sounds in the creepy cellar in a slasher horror movie.
Lots of lessons to be found in here.

[Ben Rand · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kind of sad the way the story behind the story ended...

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing insight into the evolution of the surge strategy and General Petraeus personally.

[Jared Herstine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good read good information on how the U S military operates in Iraq recommend this to all military and history buffs!!!