Iraq

Briefing Book: How to Get Out of Iraq

Why Obama still has to leave Iraq in order to save it, and why 2009 will be more crucial than he -- or many others on his team -- expect.

BY MARC LYNCH | JANUARY 11, 2009

The FP Interview with Gen. David H. Petraeus

As America's most famous warrior-scholar looks to export his Big Ideas about fighting wars from Iraq to the arguably even tougher battlefield of Afghanistan, FP's executive editor, Susan Glasser, spoke with him in the Pentagon days after he took over his new command.

INTERVIEW BY SUSAN GLASSER | JANUARY 5, 2009

Counterinsurgency Field Manual: Afghanistan Edition

Two years ago, a controversial military manual rewrote U.S. strategy in Iraq. Now, the doctrine's simple, powerful -- even radical -- tenets must be applied to the far different and neglected conflict in Afghanistan. 

BY NATHANIEL C. FICK, JOHN A. NAGL | JANUARY 5, 2009

Escape to Europe

BY MARIAH BLAKE | AUGUST 12, 2008

Iraq's 100-Year Mortgage

The price tag for caring for the Americans who fight this war could exceed what it costs to wage it.

BY LINDA J. BILMES | FEBRUARY 19, 2008

Iraq Is Not Our Fault

Matthew Crenson, Benjamin Ginsberg, and Dean Henry deny Alasdair Roberts's claim that Iraq is the war Americans deserve.

DECEMBER 12, 2007

Iraq's Networked Insurgents

BY DANIEL KIMMAGE, KATHLEEN RIDOLFO | OCTOBER 11, 2007

The War We Deserve

It's easy to blame the violence in Iraq and the pitfalls of the war on terror on a small cabal of neocons, a bumbling president, and an overstretched military. But real fault lies with the American people as well. Americans now ask more of their government but sacrifice less than ever before. It's an unrealistic, even deadly, way to fight a global war. And, unfortunately, that's just how the American people want it.

BY ALASDAIR ROBERTS | OCTOBER 11, 2007

Fortress America

The new U.S. Embassy in Baghdad is the largest the world has ever known. Thousands will live inside its blast walls, isolated from the bloody realities of a nation at war. Why has the United States built this place -- and what does it mean?

BY JANE C. LOEFFLER | SEPTEMBER 1, 2007

The FP Memo: The Endgame in Iraq

What happens when you take a 40-year-old CIA memo on losing a war and replace the word "Vietnam" with the word "Iraq"? The result is a set of conclusions that are just as true today.

BY SHAWN BRIMLEY, KURT CAMPBELL | JUNE 11, 2007

Failed States 2007: The Best and Worst

This year, several vulnerable states took a step back from the brink.

JUNE 11, 2007

No Representation Without Taxation

People only have a stake in the system when they are forced to pay for it.

BY PHILIP BOBBITT | APRIL 18, 2007

Debating Iraq's Winners

APRIL 16, 2007

Prime Numbers: Iraq's Sticker Shock

FP delves into the true cost of the Iraq war.

BY GORDON ADAMS | FEBRUARY 20, 2007

Who Wins in Iraq?

Newspaper headlines consistently remind us of the failures coming out of Iraq. The number of U.S. soldiers who have lost their lives continues to climb. The deaths of Iraqi civilians far exceed what almost anyone expected. And insurgent attacks are growing stronger and more deadly. But, if wars always produce losers, it is also true that most wars have a fair share of winners, too. So, we would like to ask, four years into the fighting, what institutions, countries, ideas, or individuals are better off because of the war? Who, in essence, are Iraq's winners? Plus, a special essay by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.

FEBRUARY 13, 2007

Who Killed Iraq?

After the invasion, America was supposed to help Iraq become a model democracy. Instead, the arrogance of L. Paul Bremer and his team of naïve neocons only helped Iraq become the world's most dangerous nation. This is how it all went wrong -- before it ever had a chance to go right.

BY RAJIV CHANDRASEKARAN | AUGUST 11, 2006

Bombers' Bazaar

BY GREG GRANT | APRIL 25, 2006

Cut and Run? You Bet.

Why America must get out of Iraq now.

BY LT. GEN. WILLIAM E. ODOM | APRIL 25, 2006

All Jammed Up

BY MICHAEL HASTINGS | JANUARY 4, 2006

The Blame Game

Who will be blamed for Iraq? It's easy for politicians to point fingers at each other. But ultimately, the buck stops at the Oval Office.

BY STEPHEN M. WALT | NOVEMBER 9, 2005

The Mayor of Ar Rutbah

Amid the chaos in Iraq, one company of U.S. Special Forces achieved what others have not: a functioning democracy. How? By relying on common sense, the trust of Iraqis, and recollections from Political Science 101. Now, their commander reveals the gritty reality about nation-building in Iraq, from the ground up.

BY JAMES A. GAVRILIS | NOVEMBER 9, 2005

The .iq Debacle

BY BARTLE BREESE BULL | AUGUST 30, 2005

An Islamic Solution

BY SOHAIL H. HASHMI | MAY 5, 2005

Tightly Tied to the New Iraq

BY JEAN BETHKE ELSHTAIN | MAY 5, 2005

A Job Half Done

BY KENNETH R. HIMES | MAY 5, 2005