This book is not as rich or as original as "Sorrows of Empire" -- it is more journalistic, and less sustained. The material is also largely familiar to anyone who has read the newspapers or any books over the period concerned (Iraq). Finally, written before the Financial Crisis -- the GFC, aka, "The Great Fuck-up" -- the perspective has been somewhat overtaken by events.
Johnson, for example -- with the image of the collapse of the Soviet Union in mind - thought that the extension of empire would precede bankruptcy. He must have been quite surprised to discover that he had it backwards.
At any rate, it is sad to note his passing tonight:

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20101123a2.html