Campus Events

3/9 Westminster Presents: 'The Iraq War: Three Things Americans Still Don't Understand About It'

Lecture by Thomas E. Ricks is part of the Kim T. Adamson Lecture Series on International Studies

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact (Media Only): Krista DeAngelis (801) 832-2682

Feb. 9, 2010

SALT LAKE CITY – As part of the Kim T. Adamson Lecture Series on International Studies, Westminster is pleased to present a lecture by Thomas E. Ricks entitled “The Iraq War: Three Things Americans Still Don’t Understand About It” on March 9, 2010, at 7:30 in the Vieve Gore Concert Hall in the Emma Eccles Jones Conservatory.

Ricks will provide insight into three critical things we don’t understand about the Iraq War. A multiple Pulitzer Prize-winning former reporter, Ricks’ expertise in such matters is substantial.
With a penchant for national security issues, he has studied and reported on U.S. military activities for nearly 30 years, covering American combat in Somalia, Haiti, Korea, Bosnia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Kuwait, Turkey, Afghanistan and Iraq. He served as a special military correspondent for the Wall Street Journal, followed by a similar position at the Washington Post. He has also written on defense matters for the Atlantic Monthly and was a member of two teams that won the Pulitzer Prize for reporting in 2000 and 2002.

Ricks is also the author of multiple books on the U.S. military. Two of his works, Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2003–05 and The Gamble: General Petraeus and the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006–08 were New York Times bestsellers. Michiko Kakutani of the Times has called these two books “devastating,” “brilliant,” “provocative,” “powerful,” “illuminating,” and “important and chilling.” Ricks also published several novels, including Making the Corps, which won Washington Monthly’s “Political Book of the Year” award, and A Soldier’s Duty, about U.S. military intervention in Afghanistan—published four months before the U.S. actually intervened there.

Currently, Ricks is a senior fellow at the Center for New American Security and a contributing editor of Foreign Policy magazine, for which he writes a blog called “The Best Defense.” Ricks grew up in New York and Afghanistan and graduated from Yale University in 1977.

The lecture is free and open to the public. A book signing will follow the event. For more information, visit www.westminstercollege.edu/campusevents.

About Westminster:
Westminster is a nationally recognized, comprehensive liberal arts college. With a broad array of graduate and undergraduate programs, Westminster is distinguished by its unique environment for learning. Westminster prepares students for success through active and engaged learning, real world experiences and its vibrant campus community. Westminster’s unique location, adjacent to the Rocky Mountains and to the dynamic city of Salt Lake, further enriches the college experience. For more information visit http://www.westminstercollege.edu or follow @WestminsterSLC or @WestminsterPR on Twitter.