'Fiasco' author: Iraq war may be only 'halfway' over

by David Edwards and Jeremy Gantz

The American adventure in Iraq may be only halfway over, nearly six years after former President George W. Bush ordered the U.S. invasion. And the military gains from Bush's "surge" could evaporate this year.

That's according to Thomas Ricks, author of the widely acclaimed 2006 book on the war, Fiasco.

"I think a lot of people back here [in the U.S.] incorrectly think the war is over. We may be only halfway through this thing," Ricks told NBC's David Gregory on Meet the Press Sunday morning.

Ricks, whose new book is called The Gamble: General David Petraeus and the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006-2008, thinks that the Iraq war is far from over. "This year we're in now, '09, is going to be, I think, a surprisingly tough year," he said.

U.S. commander in Iraq General Raymond Odierno, who the Washington Post calls a "dissenter," sees negative effects of the surge, Rick says: many Iraqis used the breathing space the surge created to "step backwards" to become more sectarian and divided.

Leading Democrats such as Senator Dianne Feinstein have said that the U.S. troop surge in Iraq could fall short of its goal.

"None of the basic problems that the surge was meant to solve, have been solved. All the basic issues facing Iraq are still there," Ricks told Gregory. "Basically the surge succeeded militarily, failed politically."