Insiders' observations of the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq and the subsequent occupation, featuring commentary from high-ranking officials, Iraqi civilians, American soldiers and prominent analysts. Examines the U.S. policy decisions surrounding the invasion and their consequences in Iraq, including such issues as low U.S. troop levels, the uncontrolled looting of Baghdad, the purging of professionals from the Iraqi government, the disbanding of the...

"Pete Hegseth joined the Army to fight extremists. Then that same Army called him one. The military Pete joined twenty years ago was fiercely focused on lethality, competency, and color blindness. Today our brass are following the rest of our country off the cliff of cultural chaos and weakness. Americans with common sense are fighting this on many fronts, but if we can't save the meritocracy of our military, we're definitely going to lose everywhere...

The Pentagon's a strange place. Inside secure command centers, military officials make life and death decisions--but the Pentagon also offers food courts, banks, drugstores, florists, and chocolate shops. When Rosa Brooks gave her family a tour, her mother gaped at the glossy window displays: "So the heart of American military power is a shopping mall?" In a sense, yes: the U.S. military has become our one-stop-shopping solution to global problems....

"As the Commander of U.S. Central Command, General Frank McKenzie oversaw some of the most important - and controversial operations in modern U.S. military history. He had direct operational responsibility for the strikes on Qassem Soleimani and two successive leaders of ISIS, the many months of deterrence operations against Iran and its proxies, and the methodical drawdown in Iraq. He directed the noncombatant evacuation operation in Afghanistan,...