Renowned War Correspondent Endorses Breaking Iraq

Joseph Galloway Comments

On March 19, 2013, ten years to the day, a book about the poorly planned invasion of Iraq by coalition forces to dethrone Saddam, and the following year of confusion, disorder, and poor leadership wrought by the same poor planning, will be in bookstores nationally. Breaking Iraq, the Ten Mistakes That Broke Iraq  co-authored by retired U.S. Army Colonel Ted Spain and retired FBI official Terry Turchie is drawing attention.

Joseph Galloway, the renowned war correspondent and author knows much about war. He has written about it for nationally syndicated news organizations, and once in the thick of battle in Vietnam carried wounded troopers to safety for which he was awarded the Bronze Star for Valor by the U.S. Army, the only civilian so honored. He read the advance review copy of Breaking Iraq with great interest. His comments:

“A tough Army Military Police commander, partnered with a former FBI agent, has given us the straight skinny on the serial disasters that attended the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the months immediately following:  Baghdad burning. Abu Ghraib torture cells. An insurgency we built ourselves. Col. Teddy Spain doesn't shy away from the truth---from a Secretary of Defense who imposed his own personal and uninformed choices on intricately balanced deployment schedules, to a civilian "American Czar" whose every decision led straight to bloody disaster, to an Army commander in way over his head--- BREAKING IRAQ tells it like it was. The lessons are here for the learning.”

Mr. Galloway’s perspective captures the essence of   Breaking Iraq:the Ten Mistakes that Broke Iraq. Lessons are to be learned and as Pulitzer Prize winner Tom Ricks says in the Foreword “…from it the reader will learn much about what went wrong in Iraq.”

Co-author Colonel (Retired) Ted Spain is a native of Wendell, North Carolina; He is an inductee into both the US Army Officer Candidate School Hall of Fame and the US Army Military Police Regimental Hall of Fame. In the Army, he served in key leadership positions, culminating as Commander of the 18th Military Police Brigade during the ground war and first year of Operation  Iraqi Freedom. He is currently the Director of the Tactical Force Operations Division, at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site, a major storage site for special nuclear material. He resides in Aiken, South Carolina.

Co-author Terry D. Turchie is a former Deputy Assistant Director of   the Counterterrorism Division of the FBI. His leadership was the driving forces behind the capture of the two most elusive and solitary domestic terrorists in U.S. history. He is a recipient of the FBI Director’s Award as well as the Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service. He resides in Danville, California.

Click here for more information on Terry Turchie and here for more information on Ted Spain.

Breaking Iraq: the Ten Mistakes that Broke Iraq will be published by History Publishing Company and will be in bookstores nationally on March 19.