Thomas Ricks: America's 'Gamble' in Iraq

04/23/2009 at 8:00 p.m.

In 2007, President Bush announced a plan to calm the chaos in Iraq by sending more troops — "the surge." Pulitzer Prize–winning military reporter Thomas Ricks tells the story behind how the surge became strategy, and what lies ahead for America's military commitment in Iraq. Ricks says he believes the war in Iraq will end up as the longest war in American history. Thomas Ricks is a special military correspondent for the Washington Post. In 2006, he wrote "Fiasco," about the planning of the Iraq War. His most recent book is "The Gamble: General David Petraeus and the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006–2008." Thomas Ricks spoke at the Seattle Central Library on April 9, 2009.