Middle East Books - Page 5

All the Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror

Stephen Kinzer

Amazon Price: $10.17 List Price: $14.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Wiley Amazon Marketplace: 67 new & used starting at $7.23

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> 20th Century -> General
Subjects -> History -> Asia -> General
Subjects -> History -> Asia -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 137 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Sometimes the truth has a liberal bias 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

To write a good history book like this one an author needs to do well in three separate areas. He needs to research the topic at hand, write a readable account and finally analyze the events. Kinzer performs exceptionally well in all three areas. First, the book is meticulously researched. He discusses appropriate history without going into unnecessary or boring details to give the reader an appropriate context and background leading up to the 1953 coup. He also uses a diverse set of resources which leaves no holes in the story.

Second, Kinzer's writing is engaging and at times suspenseful. In fact at the end of many chapters, I was unable to put the book aside and take a break from reading due to the suspense Kinzer created. The story is very easy to follow and the reader needs practically no background to follow the events. This is particularly impressive given the relative short length of the book. My only criticism is that I wished he had summarized the cast of characters in an appendix or in the beginning as many similar books do.

Finally, his analysis, while many have called too liberal, is even handed. He makes a leap by implying that 9/11 events may have not happened if it weren't for the 1953 CIA led coup. Of course we will never know for sure. He supports his claims convincingly that the coup led to the eventual 1979 hostage crisis and the anti-American feelings in the Middle East. Liberal bias? The facts speak for themselves. The CIA using American tax payer money to overthrow a popular and democratically elected government. We, in the USA, would not appreciate if foreigners overthrew our government so why have a double standard? Perhaps Mossadegh is being glorified too much and ultimately he would have led Iran towards the wrong path, but the point remains that we will never know thanks to the coup. Kinzer does entertain the possibilities that Mossadegh would have been terrible for Iran and the West so I reject the idea that he has a strong liberal bias.

If you, like me, find the "Death to USA" chants and hostage taking barbaric and puzzling, this book will offer you fresh insights and help you understand the roots of these actions. You will become a lot smarter and more knowledgeable about the Middle East after reading it. I highly recommend this book.

Editorial Review:

With a thrilling narrative that sheds much light on recent events, this national bestseller brings to life the 1953 CIA coup in Iran that ousted the country’s elected prime minister, ushered in a quarter-century of brutal rule under the Shah, and stimulated the rise of Islamic fundamentalism and anti-Americanism in the Middle East. Selected as one of the best books of the year by the Washington Post and The Economist, it now features a new preface by the author on the folly of attacking Iran.

The Greatest Story Ever Sold: The Decline and Fall of Truth in Bush's America

Frank Rich

Amazon Price: $11.25 List Price: $15.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Penguin (Non-Classics) Amazon Marketplace: 142 new & used starting at $0.01

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> 21st Century
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> General
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 144 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Stop the presses: the Administration engages in P.R.! 2 out of 5 stars.
5 of 8 people found this review helpful.

My experience with this book: in short, ennui and déjà vu, not to borrow too much from the French. As to be expected by now, we get breathless reporting on how the Administration tries to spin the press and put its actions in the most favorable light possible. Imagine that. And, as to be expected, we also get the yawn-inducing laundry list of supposed sins, along with generally poor editing and overall intellectual sloppiness. Briefly:

* Blame for Bush for not being alcoholic *enough* to swear off the booze: "He was never a clinical alcoholic, never drank during the day (or every day), never needed to seek out A.A. or any other treatment" (pp 12-13).

* "already extant" stem-cell lines (p 20). Suggestion: if you're going to use words like "extant," you should make sure you know what they mean. It's a redundancy to say "already extant," since the word means "already existing."

* Blaming America for the terrorist attacks. Regarding the pre- 9-11 culture: "A decade of dreaming was coming to an end. The dream had been simple--that Americans could have it all without having to pay any price" (p 22).

ASIDE. It's funny and ironic that so many neo-Puritans are on the left, from Al Gore to Mike Bloomberg to the theater critic. People who think that a necessary adjunct to life is suffering for our sins, whether those sins be religious or secular, real or imagined, individual or institutional.

* Blaming Bush for not going back to the capital fast enough after the terrorist attack: "September 11 was the first time since the British set fire to the White House in 1814 that a president abandoned the capital for security reasons" (p 24). First, to point out the obvious, Bush was in Florida when the Mohammedans attacked. He wasn't in the White House, so couldn't have "abandoned" it. Second, if Flight 93 hadn't crashed in Pennsylvania, Bush might have been killed in Flight 93's attack.

* "The farther away Americans were from 9/11, both in time and geography, the faster it faded" (p 38). Wrong. New York was the epicenter of the attacks yet also one of quickest to become anti-Bush and anti-war.

ASIDE. It's factually-challenged statements like the one above that make me think the theater critic really needs to get out of his bubble and see the rest of the U.S. The Upper West Side is an awfully small part of America. If you're an Upper West Side liberal who thinks people west of the Hudson River are rubes and hicks, fine. Just don't pretend to speak for them.

* Enron was "the greatest single financial patron of Bush's political career" (pp 42-43). This is just a really mentally challenged factual assertion. Companies cannot donate to politicians. 2 U.S.C. §441b(a).

* "Bush had never run a successful business" (p 51). The Texas Rangers baseball franchise wasn't a successful business?

* "Well before the missed Qaeda signals of the summer of 2001..." (p 51). Like the missed "Al" (or "al" -- the book can't make up its mind) in front of "Qaeda" in that sentence?

* The 9/11 Commission supposedly concluded that Mohammed Atta's meeting in Prague with Ahmad al-Ani, the Iraqi intelligence officer, "never took place" (pp 65, 128). Wrong. The CIA director told the 9/11 Commission: "`Atta may also have traveled outside of the U.S. in early April 2001 to meet an Iraqi intelligence officer, although we are still working to corroborate this'" (9/11 Report p 386). This statement has never been retracted or modified.

* The book is smart enough not to directly claim Bush's "sixteen words" about Iraq seeking uranium from Africa were false. The book *implies* that by concentrating on the forged uranium purchase offer documents (pp 71-72, 97-100, 143), but in point of fact, as the theater critic probably knows, chances are good that Iraq *did* seek uranium from Niger. See the Senate Intelligence Committee Report of July 7, 2004 p. 42.

* "No American weapons inspectors...would ever find any weapons" of mass destruction (p 102). Wrong. In fact, about 500 chemical weapons had been found in Iraq as of early 2006, according to the National Ground Intelligence Center, the successor to the Iraq Survey Group. (U.S. House of Representatives - Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, June 21, 2006). It's true that these weapons were mostly left over form the Iran-Iraq war, and were not new weapons or weapons produced by mobile laboratories -- but it's flat-out false to say that no WMDs were found in Iraq.

* The book seems shocked that pre- 9/11 the Bush Administration was planning for a possible showdown with Saddam Hussein (pp 113, 218), but fails to mention that the overthrow of Saddam had been an explicit U.S. policy since the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998. Of *course* there would be pre-9/11 and pre-Iraq War discussions about overthrowing Saddam. That and the fact that he was ordering constant attacks on U.S. planes in the no-fly zones. If a country tries to shoot down your planes thousands of times, isn't that country at war with you?

* The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth were supposedly "Rove minions" (p 137). Oh? Prove it. The theater critic provides some six degrees of separation stuff to back up this claim, like the fact that the Swifties' communications director once worked for a group that was bankrolled by a Bush donor (pp 139-140). That's riveting evidence all right. George Tenant would call it a slam dunk. Face it, the theater critic has squat because if Rove really had been controlling the Swifties, that would be explosive, because it is illegal for a political campaign to coordinate with an outside, 527 group. 2 U.S.C. §441a(a)(7). Which is likelier: the left has overlooked a chance to nail Rove for a crime -- or the theater critic is talking out of his hat?

* In 2004 the Rovian attack machine set out to have Kerry "literally stripped of his medals" (p 137). No, the only person who "literally stripped" John Kerry of his medals was John Kerry. He did that all by himself when he took his medals off and threw them over the White House fence.

ASIDE. "literally stripped." Wow. Literally? So Rove is just going to walk up to Kerry and strip those medals off of him?

* Supposedly Kerry was opposed to same-sex marriage (p 151). That's both true and false. It's true that by Election Day 2004 Kerry said he opposed same-sex marriage. But it's false because Kerry at one point did support it ("Kerry Signed Letter Backing Gay Marriage," USA Today, Feb 11, 2004) but later flip-flopped on the issue.

* Bush's flight suit he wore to the aircraft carrier Lincoln was a "costume" (p 156). Because the theater critic seems to be factually deficient regarding military matters, let me point out that a flight suit is required gear for flying a plane. It's a "costume" in the same sense a fire fighter's clothing and helmet is a "costume."

* The book describes the Jayson Blair plagiarism and fabrication scandal, and the Memogate scandal, then goes on to say: "These scandals played perfectly into the Administration's insidious efforts to blur the boundary between its reality and actual reality" (p 163). So let me get this straight: story fabrication and libel are "actual reality" and anyone trying to say otherwise has an alternative reality? Unbelievable.

* Rove supposedly was the source of the Valerie Plame leak (pp 179-180). Wrong. Actually, it was Richard Armitage. See "Hubris" by Isikoff and Corn.

* The book spends a lot of time blasting Bush for the feds' Katrina response (pp 198-205), but makes no mention of the incompetent New Orleans and Louisiana response, as well as the Posse Comitatus problem. I'm not saying that what the theater critic has to say about Bush and Katrina is factually incorrect, it's just distorted because it omits the other pieces of the picture.

* I thought the book would be too smart to fall into the Iraq / "imminent threat" trap but apparently the theater critic couldn't help himself. He implies the Administration said or believed that Saddam was an imminent threat (p 211). Wrong. Bush never said Saddam posed an "imminent threat" or imminent anything. In fact, in his 2003 State of the Union Speech, Bush said just the opposite, that we should attack Saddam *before* he became an imminent threat: "Some have said we must not act until the threat is imminent. Since when have terrorists and tyrants announced their intentions, politely putting us on notice before they strike? If this threat is permitted to fully and suddenly emerge, all actions, all words, and all recriminations would come too late."

Overall, I have to admit that while the book breaks no new ground in any way, it *is* clever enough not to fall for some of the standard anti-Bush lies -- for example that Iraq never sought uranium from Africa or that Bush declared the war to be over in the May 1, 2003 "Mission Accomplished" speech. The theater critic does seem to be aware that there are facts other than those in his alternative universe. That's a bit of a relief at this stage, and bumps this book up to two stars.

Editorial Review:

When America was attacked on 9/11, its citizens almost unanimously rallied behind its new, untested president as he went to war. What they didn't know at the time was that the Bush administration's highest priority would be to consolidate its own power at any cost. As only he can, New York Times columnist Frank Rich brilliantly and meticulously illuminates the White House's disturbing love affair with "truthiness." His step-by-step chronicle shows how the nation was misled into war in Iraq and how the bungled aftermath, a Washington leak, and a devastating hurricane at long last revealed the lies in a story that had been so effectively sold to the nation as God-given patriotic fact.

The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict

Joseph E. Stiglitz, Linda J. Bilmes

Amazon Price: $10.85 List Price: $15.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: W. W. Norton Amazon Marketplace: 51 new & used starting at $9.17

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Middle East -> Iran
Subjects -> History -> Military -> Iraq War
Subjects -> History -> Military -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 35 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

"This is a catalog [of costs] the Bush team never looked at. It's a catalog that they still don't want you to see."—James Galbraith

America has already spent close to a trillion dollars on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but there are hundreds of billions of bills still due—including staggering costs to take care of the thousands of injured veterans, providing them with disability benefits and health care. In this sobering study, Nobel Prize winner Joseph E. Stiglitz and Harvard University's Linda J. Bilmes reveal a wide range of costs that have been hidden from U.S. taxpayers and left out of the debate about our involvement in Iraq. That involvement, the authors conservatively estimate, will cost us more than $3 trillion.

"Stiglitz and Bilmes have clearly demonstrated the need for Congress and the administration to ensure that those making sacrifices today will see those sacrifices honored in the future."—Dave W. Gorman, executive director, Disabled American Veterans

Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq

Stephen Kinzer

Amazon Price: $10.88 List Price: $16.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Times Books Amazon Marketplace: 82 new & used starting at $4.82

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> General
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> General AAS
Subjects -> History -> Middle East -> Iraq

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 111 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

“Detailed, passionate and convincing . . . [with] the pace and grip of a good thriller.”—Anatol Lieven, The New York Times Book Review

"Regime change” did not begin with the administration of George W. Bush, but has been an integral part of U.S. foreign policy for more than one hundred years. Starting with the toppling of the Hawaiian monarchy in 1893, the United States has not hesitated to overthrow governments that stood in the way of its political and economic goals. The invasion of Iraq in 2003 is but the latest example of the dangers inherent in these operations.

In Overthrow, Stephen Kinzer tells the stories of the audacious politicians, spies, military commanders, and business executives who took it upon themselves to depose foreign regimes. He details the three eras of America’s regime-change century—the imperial era, which brought Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, Nicaragua, and Honduras under America’s sway; the cold war era, which employed covert action against Iran, Guatemala, South Vietnam, and Chile; and the invasion era, which saw American troops toppling governments in Grenada, Panama, Afghanistan, and Iraq.

Kinzer explains why the U.S. government has pursued these operations and why so many of them have had disastrous long-term consequences, making Overthrow a cautionary tale that serves as an urgent warning as the United States seeks to define its role in the modern world.

The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography

Simon Singh

Amazon Price: $10.85 List Price: $15.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Anchor Amazon Marketplace: 110 new & used starting at $3.11

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Programming -> Algorithms -> Cryptography
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Web Development -> Security & Encryption -> Encryption
Subjects -> History -> Africa -> Egypt -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 252 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

excellent 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

great book regarding the history of cryptography. The only way to truly understand anything is c the history of it's introduction

Editorial Review:

In his first book since the bestselling Fermat's Enigma, Simon Singh offers the first sweeping history of encryption, tracing its evolution and revealing the dramatic effects codes have had on wars, nations, and individual lives. From Mary, Queen of Scots, trapped by her own code, to the Navajo Code Talkers who helped the Allies win World War II, to the incredible (and incredibly simple) logisitical breakthrough that made Internet commerce secure, The Code Book tells the story of the most powerful intellectual weapon ever known: secrecy.

Throughout the text are clear technical and mathematical explanations, and portraits of the remarkable personalities who wrote and broke the world's most difficult codes. Accessible, compelling, and remarkably far-reaching, this book will forever alter your view of history and what drives it.  It will also make yo wonder how private that e-mail you just sent really is.

Persepolis Boxed Set

Marjane Satrapi

Amazon Price: $17.09 List Price: $25.90 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Pantheon Amazon Marketplace: 47 new & used starting at $14.99

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> General AAS
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Specific Groups -> Women
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 13 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood

Wise, funny, and heartbreaking, Persepolis is Marjane Satrapi’s memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. In powerful black-and-white comic strip images, Satrapi tells the story of her life in Tehran from ages six to fourteen, years that saw the overthrow of the Shah’s regime, the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, and the devastating effects of war with Iraq. The intelligent and outspoken only child of committed Marxists and the great-granddaughter of one of Iran’s last emperors, Marjane bears witness to a childhood uniquely entwined with the history of her country.

Persepolis paints an unforgettable portrait of daily life in Iran and of the bewildering contradictions between home life and public life. Marjane’s child’s-eye view of dethroned emperors, state-sanctioned whippings, and heroes of the revolution allows us to learn as she does the history of this fascinating country and of her own extraordinary family. Intensely personal, profoundly political, and wholly original, Persepolis is at once a story of growing up and a reminder of the human cost of war and political repression. It shows how we carry on, with laughter and tears, in the face of absurdity. And, finally, it introduces us to an irresistible little girl with whom we cannot help but fall in love.


Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return

Here is the continuation of Marjane Satrapi's fascinating story. In 1984, Marjane flees fundamentalism and the war with Iraq to begin a new life in Vienna. Once there, she faces the trials of adolescence far from her friends and family, and while she soon carves out a place for herself among a group of fellow outsiders, she continues to struggle for a sense of belonging.

Finding that she misses her home more than she can stand, Marjane returns to Iran after graduation. Her difficult homecoming forces her to confront the changes both she and her country have undergone in her absence and her shame at what she perceives as her failure in Austria. Marjane allows her past to weigh heavily on her until she finds some like-minded friends, falls in love, and begins studying art at a university. However, the repression and state-sanctioned chauvinism eventually lead her to question whether she can have a future in Iran.

As funny and poignant as its predecessor, Persepolis 2 is another clear-eyed and searing condemnation of the human cost of fundamentalism. In its depiction of the struggles of growing up—here compounded by Marjane’s status as an outsider both abroad and at home—it is raw, honest, and incredibly illuminating.

Plan of Attack

Bob Woodward

Amazon Price: $11.90 List Price: $14.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Simon & Schuster Amazon Marketplace: 70 new & used starting at $2.45

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Middle East -> Iraq
Subjects -> History -> Military -> Iraq War
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Government -> Federal Government

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 255 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Plan of Attack is the definitive account of how and why President George W. Bush, his war council, and allies launched a preemptive attack to topple Saddam Hussein and occupy Iraq. Bob Woodward's latest landmark account of Washington decision making provides an original, authoritative narrative of behind-the-scenes maneuvering over two years, examining the causes and consequences of the most controversial war since Vietnam.

Based on interviews with 75 key participants and more than three and a half hours of exclusive interviews with President Bush, Plan of Attack is part presidential history charting the decisions made during 16 critical months; part military history revealing precise details and the evolution of the Top Secret war planning under the restricted codeword Polo Step; and part a harrowing spy story as the CIA dispatches a covert paramilitary team into northern Iraq six months before the start of the war. This team recruited 87 Iraqi spies designated with the cryptonym DB/ROCKSTARS, one of whom turned over the personnel files of all 6,000 men in Saddam Hussein's personal security organization.

What emerges are astonishingly intimate portraits: President Bush in war cabinet meetings in the White House Situation Room and the Oval Office, and in private conversation; Dick Cheney, the focused and driven vice president; Colin Powell, the conflicted and cautious secretary of state; Donald Rumsfeld, the controlling war technocrat; George Tenet, the activist CIA director; Tommy Franks, the profane and demanding general; Condoleezza Rice, the ever-present referee and national security adviser; Karl Rove, the hands-on political strategist; other key members of the White House staff and congressional leadership; and foreign leaders ranging from British Prime Minister Blair to Russian President Putin.

Plan of Attack provides new details on the intelligence assessments of Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction and the planning for the war's aftermath.

The Long Road Home: A Story of War and Family

Martha Raddatz

Amazon Price: $11.25 List Price: $15.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Berkley Trade Amazon Marketplace: 74 new & used starting at $0.01

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Leaders & Notable People -> Military -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Leaders & Notable People -> Military -> General AAS
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Professionals & Academics -> Military & Spies

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 68 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

The Long Road Home 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Excellent read about the war in Iraq. I bought this book after I found parts contained action my son was involved in. Found my son's name and picture of truck he was in. He was trying to save Cindy Sheenan's son Casey. He was ambushed also and was hit in his foot. They lost eight good soliders that day. I hope they make a movie someday. My son is a IV and he was shot on 4-4-4 in Sadr City Iraq. He now has PTSD and is divorced from the woman he loves. Where is Cindy Sheenan now?

Extremely Relevant Story, Mostly Well Told 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I saw Martha Raddatz speak at the Pritzker Military Library last week (June 2008) and bought the book there on the spot. I have read it straight through in a couple of days and wish that every American would read this book or one with a similar story. It seems that Iraq has become background noise in light of the energy crisis and the country's economic woes.

It's easy to forget that we are at war and that American servicemen are losing their lives. This book brings that reality home. It's not a fun read - it's a distinctly uncomfortable and sometimes depressing one. But reading stories like this might go some ways towards breaking through this desensitization we seem to have as a country when it comes to the war in Iraq.

I think that the portions of the book written from the view of the soldiers are solid and really brought me into the action of that awful battle. I won't ever know what it is like to be a soldier who engages in battle and is wounded or sees friends wounded or, worse, killed in action. But this book at least makes me really think about it and gives a good description of how these soldiers felt.

On the other hand, I did not think that the parts of the book written from the perspective of the families was as strong. I am not sure if this is the result of Ms. Raddatz respecting the wives of the killed soldiers and not interviewing them directly or just because her passion lies with the stories that these men have to tell more than with the stories of their families. Either way, it made the book feel a little unbalanced to me.

All that being said, I think that this book is important. The story that it tells is important not only because the battle it details was a turning point in the war but because it reminds us that our fellow countrymen are going through unspeakable things. This war remains relevant and I applaud the efforts of Ms. Raddatz and others like her for fighting to keep it in the media.

Editorial Review:

The First Cavalry Division came under surprise attack in Sadr City on April 4, 2004, now known as "Black Sunday." On the homefront, over 7,000 miles away, their families awaited the news for forty-eight hellish hours- expecting the worst. ABC News' chief correspondent Martha Raddatz shares remarkable tales of heroism, hope, and heartbreak.

Sheriff of Ramadi

Dick Couch

Amazon Price: $19.77 List Price: $29.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Naval Institute Press Amazon Marketplace: 30 new & used starting at $18.29

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Middle East -> General
Subjects -> History -> Middle East -> General AAS
Subjects -> History -> Military -> Naval

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

In this ground-breaking book, bestselling author and former U.S. Navy SEAL Dick Couch follows the SEAL Task Unit in Iraq s Anbar Province between 2005 and 2007, chronicling the unit s deployment in the Battle of Ramadi. Based on extensive interviews with Army, Navy, and Marine personnel who fought in the battle and the author s firsthand assessment of the situation when he traveled to Ramadi in 2007, Couch details the previously unrecognized importance of the SEALS in winning the fight to control Ramadi. Calling the battle the most significant military engagement in the global war against terrorism since 9/11 and the most sustained and vicious engagement ever fought by SEALs, Couch describes the success of special operations forces/Navy SEALs fighting side by side with conventional forces. Couch identifies the SEALs ability to adapt and evolve in this urban battle space and their code of brotherhood as the keys of their success. Among the many examples of this extraordinary brotherhood is the story of PO2 Michael A. Monsoor, who was posthumously, awarded the Medal of Honor for his bravery in Ramadi.

The author argues that the lessons of Ramadi should provide a template for future joint combined cooperation in the war against al-Qaeda and their allies. Once an advocate of special-forces control of battle space, Couch is now convinced of the need for increased interoperability as well as increased language and cross-cultural training, and a more streamlined command and communication infrastructure issues he addresses in the book s epilogue. Couch admits that when he began researching the book in the summer of 2006, he thought he would be writing about the SEALs courage in a losing cause, but what emerged is a startling success story of a joint combined forces/special forces operation that has gone underreported.

Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone (Vintage)

Rajiv Chandrasekaran

Amazon Price: $10.17 List Price: $14.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Vintage Amazon Marketplace: 85 new & used starting at $3.92

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Middle East -> Iraq
Subjects -> History -> Middle East -> General
Subjects -> History -> Middle East -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 152 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A damning indictment 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

Since I lived for a year in Baghdad's Green Zone, I felt it was necessary for me to read what happened before I got there, under L. Paul Bremer, bureaucrat extraordinaire. That is why I recently found myself reading Imperial Life in the Emerald City, by Rajiv Chandrasekaran.

To say that the Bush Administration and its chosen Iraq occupation overlords made poor choices during and immediately after the invasion of that country would be an understatement so vast that I have no words to describe how big an understatement I would be making. Reading Imperial Life in the Emerald City reinforced for me many of the reasons why I heard the impact of so many mortars during my 2005-2006 sojourn to Iraq's largest city and at the time one of the most violent if not the most violent city in the world.

I met Rajiv Chandrasekaran in Baghdad in 2006, when I credentialed him for access to military bases. The man was humble, unassuming and patient with the bureaucratic process he endured, which is much more than I can say for Geraldo Rivera, who had sycophants hanging all over him and required that we open for a special session to credential him. In any case, the book itself is superly written in a professional tone.

The damning indictments of cronyism and poor decision making due to a complete lack of understanding of the culture and history of Iraq are presented artfully, without the forced overtones of sarcasm that would have appeared had I written Imperial Life in the Emerald City.

From the story of the Iraqi expatriatate who returns post invasion to open a five-star pizza shop only to find his American customers cannot leave their fortified enclave to the tale of the minor minister who is assasinated for trying to help his country without being politically involved, to the detailed descriptions of the "little America" inside a several square mile compound in downtown Baghdad, this book is well worth reading.

I do not know if L. Paul Bremer has yet publicly admitted how arrogant and stupid many of the decisions made in that first year of occupation were, but he knows it in his heart. If he doesn't that would mean the man has no heart.

Having served in Iraq, and having been to a few locales outside the "Emerald Palace" I called the Green Zone, I still hold pain in my heart for the people I met and for their suffering. Things may be turning around now in that country. But in reading Imperial Life in the Emerald City, it becomes clear that much of the violence that wracked the country and the city of Baghdad could have been avoided if things had been done differently in the beginning. We'll never know how many died because of bad decision making, but it is clear that the numbers are in the tens of thousands and possibly much higher.

If you've ever wondered what was really going on in those first days of the occupation, you owe it to yourself to read this book. Highly recommended.

Editorial Review:

The Green Zone, Baghdad, 2003: in this walled-off compound of swimming pools and luxurious amenities, Paul Bremer and his Coalition Provisional Authority set out to fashion a new, democratic Iraq. Staffed by idealistic aides chosen primarily for their views on issues such as abortion and capital punishment, the CPA spent the crucial first year of occupation pursuing goals that had little to do with the immediate needs of a postwar nation: flat taxes instead of electricity and deregulated health care instead of emergency medical supplies.

In this acclaimed firsthand account, the former Baghdad bureau chief of The Washington Post gives us an intimate portrait of life inside this Oz-like bubble, which continued unaffected by the growing mayhem outside. This is a quietly devastating tale of imperial folly, and the definitive history of those early days when things went irrevocably wrong in Iraq.