“It’s like moving from the eighth circle of hell to the fifth,” Tom Ricks, military correspondent for The Washington Post and the author of two books on the Iraq War, said of post-surge Iraq.
Speaking at the Georgetown Public Policy Institute on Tuesday about the situation in Iraq, Ricks was introduced by former Sen. Tom Daschle as the author of “the definitive book on the Iraq war, Fiasco.”
Ricks took questions from Daschle and Georgetown students, his answers speckled with anecdotes that painted a chaotic picture of Iraq.
“What I noticed that really struck me is the exodus of young officers,” he said. “Captains leave as soon as their West Point requirement is fulfilled. I asked one captain who had been the top of her West Point class why she was leaving, and she said it was because she no longer had faith in her government.”
Although Ricks suggested that young officers in the war are particularly disillusioned by the situation in Iraq, he devoted his attention to all levels of the military in his reporting.
Ricks, whom Daschle called one of the most informed authorities on the Iraq War, remembered attending a military conference at which he knew almost everyone.
“I am convinced the military consists of only ten thousand members, because I keep seeing the same people,” Ricks said. “And I’ve known Gen. Petraeus since he was a lieutenant colonel. I remember getting into an argument with him in Seoul.”
During the student question and answer section, Iraq veteran Nicholas Veasey said that he left because he had been offered a job in intelligence, not because he was disillusioned. He added that many of his peers left to pursue other careers, or because of how long it would take to become a high ranking officer.
But at the close of Rick’s talk, Veasey was still impressed.
“I’m a huge fan of his first book,” he said. “And I disagree with his assessment of the general feelings of officers, but he is so well-informed and spot-on with a lot of things.”
One of the more controversial topics Ricks touched upon was the surge. Offering his own analysis, Ricks insisted that—while the surge improved security in Iraq—it was still a failure overall.
“The problem is the purpose of the surge was to create a breathing space for political reconciliation,” Ricks said. “There is evidence the surge has actually impeded it.”
Ricks also reflected poignantly on the day-to-day happenings in Iraq.
“There was a group of kids that would walk from kindergarten to daycare every day that I could see from my window in our house in Baghdad,” Ricks said. “Seeing those kids I thought, ‘One of them will grow up to fight and die in Iraq.’ I still believe that, so if you have your anti-depressants, take them now.”
Throughout the event, Daschle was marginally more optimistic about the situation in Iraq, and Ricks’ answers sometimes added perspective to Daschle’s. At the close of the questions, Daschle insisted leadership was trying hard to find solutions to problems in the war.
“As a journalist, I would have said that in a more pointed way,” Ricks said. “There are no easy answers anymore.”
