A work of prodigious research, "Cobra II" will likely become the benchmark by which other histories of the Iraq invasion are measured.

The reviewer, Sean Naylor, is a senior investigative writer for the Army Times Publishing Company and the author of "Not a Good Day to Die: The Untold Story of Operation Anaconda."

I recently blogged about the reviewer's book, also recommended.

'Cobra II,' by Michael R. Gordon and Gen. Bernard E. Trainor