Surge: An Insider's Account of the Controversial Strategy that Changed the Outcome of the Iraq War
Channel: New America
Date: 07/02/2014

Surge
An Insider's Account of the Controversial Strategy that Changed the Outcome of the Iraq War

In 2007, President George W. Bush announced his plan to send more than 20,000 additional troops into Iraq, a highly contested campaign designed to stem out-of-control violence in the country and to alter the course of a war on the verge of failure. It was a controversial strategy during a time of widespread public dissatisfaction with the administration and the situation in Iraq. As Gen. David Petraeus's executive officer, Col. Peter R. Mansoor saw the impacts of the surge firsthand.
 
In his new book, Surge: My Journey with General David Petraeus and the Remaking of the Iraq War, this respected military historian provides the first insider's view of the dramatic change in strategy in Iraq and of how counterinsurgency operations played out on the ground in 2007 and 2008. Using newly declassified primary source documents, unpublished manuscripts, interviews, and published sources, along with his personal recollections of the events in question, Mansoor explains how Bush, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker, Petraeus, and other U.S. and Iraqi political and military leaders shaped the surge from the center of the maelstrom in Baghdad and Washington.
 
The New America Foundation hosted Col. Mansoor for a discussion about the surge strategy, its implementation, and new insights on a war whose consequences continue to reverberate through the region.

Participants
Peter R. Mansoor
Colonel, U.S. Army (Retired)
Author, Surge: My Journey with General David Petraeus and the Remaking of the Iraq War
General Raymond E. Mason, Jr. Chair of Military History, Ohio State University
 
Joel Rayburn
Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army
Research Fellow, National Defense University

Peter Bergen
Director, National Security Program, New America Foundation

Participants
Peter R. Mansoor
Colonel, U.S. Army (Retired)
Author, Surge: My Journey with General David Petraeus and the Remaking of the Iraq War
General Raymond E. Mason, Jr. Chair of Military History, Ohio State University
 
Joel Rayburn
Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army
Research Fellow, National Defense University

Peter Bergen
Director, National Security Program, New America Foundation