Petraeus's Options
General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker returned to Congress for hearings on the state of Iraq. By Marc Ambinder
Iraq's Forever War
As fighting dies down in Basra, the underlying tensions fueling the violence show no signs of abating. By Matthew Yglesias
The Stakes in Iraq
In his first foreign-policy address since winning the GOP nomination, John McCain argued that the U.S. has a "moral obligation" to fulfill in Iraq. By Ross Douthat
How to Succeed in Bloodshed
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's successful visit to Iraq demonstrates the growing extent of Iranian influence in the Middle East. By Reihan Salam
DISPATCH
A Report From Iraq
Ambushed in Mosul, Bing West visits the last urban redoubt of al Qaeda in Iraq and sees a calmer battlefield—but political troubles ahead.
DISPATCH
Among the Kurds
Atlantic editor Graeme Wood describes his sojourn with the militant young bookworms of the PKK.
DISPATCH
Outsourcing Conflict
For all the notoriety of private military contractors like Blackwater, they represent an important aspect of the future of war. And that future is not all bad. By Robert D. Kaplan
DISPATCH
Will the Petraeus Strategy Be the Last?
Bing West, a Marine officer in Vietnam and former assistant secretary of defense, offers a view from Iraq's restive Anbar province on Congress's recent Iraq hearings.
DISPATCH
Bottom-Up Progress
Robert D. Kaplan gives credence to the testimony of General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker and warns against a hasty withdrawal from Iraq.
DISPATCH
The First Test of the Surge
We are about to find out what happens in Iraq after the U.S. troops leave. By Bing West
Smoke and Mirrors
What the State Department is not accomplishing in Iraq. By Robert D. Kaplan
THE IRAQ STUDY GROUP REPORT
Was the Iraq Study Group Report Really a Flop?
For a document that was supposedly "dead-on-arrival," it's certainly having a strong influence. By Robert Kaplan
No Easy Exit From Iraq
"Bad as the situation in Iraq may be, a precipitate retreat would make things worse." By Clive Crook
Streetwise
Whether we ultimately stay or go, we need to contain the burgeoning forces of chaos now—and that requires fixing Iraq's policing problems. An expert explains how. By Bing West
THE IRAQ STUDY GROUP REPORT
A Turning Point
The Iraq Study Group may be remembered as the Walter Cronkite of this war. By James Fallows
THE IRAQ STUDY GROUP REPORT
Blind to Choice
Bing West, a Marine officer in Vietnam and the former assistant secretary of defense, comments on the military's reaction to the Iraq Study Group Report
THE IRAQ STUDY GROUP REPORT
A Reaction
"The urge to dismiss the Study Group's report as a surrender document (as some neoconservatives have already done) is off the mark. Read carefully, it is a tough, intricate policy statement, albeit with serious flaws." By Robert D. Kaplan.
THE IRAQ STUDY GROUP REPORT
Will the Administration Listen?
A historical look at why the Iraq Study Group's report may end up as yet another casualty of war. By Jordan Tama.
FALLOWS@LARGE
Getting Out of Iraq
What's the right idea when all ideas are bad? By James Fallows.
DISPATCH
We Can't Just Withdraw
Iraq may be closer to an explosion of genocide than we know. By Robert D. Kaplan.
FLASHBACKS
Iraq: Is It Time to Leave?
James Fallows, Robert Kaplan, and Nir Rosen weigh in.
FLASHBACKS
Iraq Considered
Should the U.S. intervene in Iraq? Articles from 1958 to the present offer a variety of perspectives.
FALLOWS ON IRAQ
A quartet of Atlantic cover stories by James Fallows on issues concerning the Iraq War:
Why Iraq Has No Army (December 2005)
An orderly exit from Iraq depends on the development of a viable Iraqi security force, but the Iraqis aren't even close. The Bush administration doesn't take the problem seriously—and it never has.
Bush's Lost Year (October 2004)By deciding to invade Iraq, the Bush Administration decided not to do many other things: not to reconstruct Afghanistan, not to deal with the threats posed by North Korea and Iran, and not to wage an effective war on terror. An inventory.
Blind Into Baghdad (January/February 2004)The U.S. occupation of Iraq is a debacle not because the government did no planning but because a vast amount of expert planning was willfully ignored by the people in charge. The inside story of a historic failure.
The Fifty-first State? (January/February 2004)Going to war with Iraq would mean shouldering all the responsibilities of an occupying power the moment victory was achieved. These would include running the economy, keeping domestic peace, and protecting Iraq's borders—and doing it all for years, or perhaps decades. Are we ready for this long-term relationship?