Losing Iraq: Inside the Postwar Reconstruction Fiasco

Losing Iraq: Inside the Postwar Reconstruction Fiasco
by David L. Phillips

Losing Iraq: Inside the Postwar Reconstruction Fiasco
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Book Summary Information

Author: David L. Phillips
Edition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2005-04-26
ISBN: 0813343046
Number of pages: 304
Publisher: Basic Books

Book Reviews of Losing Iraq: Inside the Postwar Reconstruction Fiasco

Book Review: I just couldn't get through this one; my apologies to the author
Summary: 2 Stars

My apologies to the author, but I just couldn't get through this one.

The first typo I encountered was on page 24, line 30: "...Saddam counterattacked agains Shi'a militia...." Should be "against" -- terminal "t" was dropped. As I've said before, I hate typos, ungrammatical syntax, etc., -- and yes, even my own. But I don't claim to have a batch of editors, and know from experience that it's difficult to be both author and editor, unless you take several hours after the writing to put on the editor's green eyeshade, cuff protectors, all the accouterments of the ink-stained wretch. And, my druthers notwithstanding, these linguistic lapses do impede the communication between author and reader.

I didn't get much farther than that typo. Reason: In my view, an excessive, annoying use of the first person singular, references to 'this person was jealous of that person,' making it seem more like a work of gossip and an explanation of the author's personal personnel impressions, rather than any new, concrete, substantive information. Seems to me that I've read it all before and this work did not increase my net knowledge or understanding of this illegal invasion and occupation.

There is one sense in which the book is useful, I suppose, but I doubt it's the one the author intended. The utility, for the reader, is that it shows how profoundly petty, egotistical, self-centered and self-serving -- disgusting, actually -- are the folks in the inner circles of power in this rogue Cheney/Bush administration.

Just as in the case of the well-written recent novel by Philip Zelikow, entitled "Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States," our republic has been ill-served by its public servants and their "senior advisors," as was this book's author, David L. Phillips, and camp followers. Recalling folks like Bill "Shrill Shill Bill" Kristol, Richard "If you've got the power, use it" Perle, Paul "I don't darn socks. That's what girlfriends in high places are for" Wolfowitz, Dick (why bother with a nickname--he's hardly worth the effort, anyway "I can lie out of the side of my mouth better than anybody) Cheney, Donald "Stuff Happens" Rumsfeld, John "Man Without a Seoul" or "better..." Yoo "...than me," All the Vice President's Men, All The President's Women, All Karl Rove's Women... and so on, ad nauseam.

(By the way, all this wasted palaver about "Winning The War in Iran" is just so much hogwash. The US has ALREADY won in Iraq, and has so declared. The US won the illegal war of invasion it waged from March 19, 2003 to about April 9, 2003, when the photo-op "toppling of Saddam's Statue" was staged. And Bush declared victory in his typically mushy and misleading language in the cowboy photo-op aboard the carrier USS Abe Lincoln on May 1st, 2003.

The Wikipedia entry on this topic ("Mission Accomplished") is particularly useful, IMHO. The White House, after much lying, confessed that Bush's minions had made the "Mission Accomplished" banner, had hung the banner from the carrier's superstructure, and was responsible for it all along -- they just didn't want their full complicity in the 30-miles offshore publicity stunt to become known, didn't want to be stung/hung with the proper elementary-school taunt, "Liar, liar, flight-suit on fire." And, more particularly, did NOT want it to appear that the US was declaring that we had won the war, had achieved victory, had "accomplished" the "mission." Though Bush said, "In the Battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed," (Rumsfeld had edited out any reference to "Mission Accomplished" in the speech, but either didn't know about or was too late to "roll up" the triumphant banner, the administration did NOT want to claim victory, because that would have meant they'd have to give up the specter of a permanent, forever, never-winnable, never "accomplished" "global war on terror" which was their most powerful lever -- the "fear card" -- over Congress, the cowardly Democratic Party, and the electorate.

But I digress.

There are many more books on this topic that are far, far more useful. Among the many I've read, Iraqi insider Ali Allawi's "TThe Occupation of Iraq: Winning the War, Losing the Peace. Author's the brother of Ayad Allawi, if I remember correctly.

If you do want to read this book anyway, I'd take it out of the library, unless you've got money to burn and bookshelves to fill. Or you could download the Amazon digital book--cheaper, smaller space requirement.

Summary of Losing Iraq: Inside the Postwar Reconstruction Fiasco

According to conventional wisdom, Iraq has suffered because the Bush administration had no plan for reconstruction. That?s not the case; the State Department?s Future of Iraq group planned out the situation carefully and extensively, and Middle East expert David Phillips was part of this group. White House ideologues and imprudent Pentagon officials decided simply to ignore those plans. The administration only listened to what it wanted to hear.Losing Iraq doesn?t just criticize the policies of unilateralism, preemption, and possible deception that launched the war; it documents the process of returning sovereignty to an occupied Iraq. Unique, as well, are Phillips?s personal accounts of dissension within the administration.The problems encountered in Iraq are troubling not only in themselves but also because they bode ill for other nation-building efforts in which the U.S. may become mired through this administration?s doctrine of unilateral, preemptive war. Losing Iraq looks into the future of America?s foreign policy with a clear-eyed critique of the problems that loom ahead.

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