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jgrummo42's review against another edition
5.0
Captivating. As someone who was too young to really understand the political events during the Bush Administration, I've come to learn a lot about the America I grew up in post 9/11. This book helped greatly in that journey.
cdbaker's review against another edition
3.0
I learned a lot, but a lot of the book was written at a level of much greater detail than I really needed (which I find common with books about the Middle East by journalists). I found the bits about the Kurds particularly useful.
kashyapm94's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.5
nerdofdoom's review against another edition
5.0
I couldn't put this one down. Very thought provoking. If you lived through these times then it is a stunning reminder of what it was like. If you are going to read one book about Iraq I think this is it.
5easypieces's review against another edition
4.0
The most clear-eyed history I've ever read of why we're in Iraq and what happened. This is the standard by which future histories of this war should be judged.
ericwelch's review against another edition
4.0
George Packer has written a truly enlightening and intriguing book about our descent into Iraq. Packer is a lucid and engaging writer who can clearly summarize the intellectual debate between the neoconservatives and the realists. It's also a sad book. Learning how policy is arrived out and then justified and implemented can be very discouraging.
The neocons and Bush had decided to go after Iraq for a variety of reasons before 9/11. The concern then became how to sell that decision. Shortly after the fall of Baghdad Paul Wolfowitz fold an interviewer: "The truth is that for reasons that have a lot to do with the U.S, government bureaucracy, we settled on the one issue that everyone could agree on, which was weapons of mass destruction." The real rationale for the war was to realign American power in the Middle East, toward a democratic society and away from Saudi Arabia, home of the Wahhabi sect that virtually controlled Saudi society and government and had been the home to almost all of the 9/11 terrorists. (See Sandra MacKey's very excellent book on Saudi Arabia -- [b:The Saudis Inside the Desert Kingdom|511872|The Saudis Inside the Desert Kingdom|Sandra Mackey|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175397999s/511872.jpg|1488726] -- for a detailed view of what it's like to live in such a theocracy.)
The job then became to selectively use pieces of intelligence that supported their common justification. "Just a year earlier, Iraq had been viewed as an outlaw state that was beginning to slip free of international constraints and might present a threat to the region or, more remotely, the United States in five years or so. Now, suddenly, there wasn't a day to be lost. . . It didn't matter that there was no strong evidence to back up the doomsday prognosis."
The neocons and Bush had decided to go after Iraq for a variety of reasons before 9/11. The concern then became how to sell that decision. Shortly after the fall of Baghdad Paul Wolfowitz fold an interviewer: "The truth is that for reasons that have a lot to do with the U.S, government bureaucracy, we settled on the one issue that everyone could agree on, which was weapons of mass destruction." The real rationale for the war was to realign American power in the Middle East, toward a democratic society and away from Saudi Arabia, home of the Wahhabi sect that virtually controlled Saudi society and government and had been the home to almost all of the 9/11 terrorists. (See Sandra MacKey's very excellent book on Saudi Arabia -- [b:The Saudis Inside the Desert Kingdom|511872|The Saudis Inside the Desert Kingdom|Sandra Mackey|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175397999s/511872.jpg|1488726] -- for a detailed view of what it's like to live in such a theocracy.)
The job then became to selectively use pieces of intelligence that supported their common justification. "Just a year earlier, Iraq had been viewed as an outlaw state that was beginning to slip free of international constraints and might present a threat to the region or, more remotely, the United States in five years or so. Now, suddenly, there wasn't a day to be lost. . . It didn't matter that there was no strong evidence to back up the doomsday prognosis."
pescarox's review against another edition
4.0
Excellent. Packer’s account is balanced but fair. He doesn’t go easy on anyone.
li3an1na4's review against another edition
5.0
I have never been more angry, depressed, and disgusted after reading a book.
This was definitely a difficult book to get through not in terms of reading level, but the subject matter. Thousands of lives lost, millions of dollars wasted, goodwill and trust destroyed - all due to criminal negligence in planning a war and the post-war.
With the war hawks looking to get into the Middle East again and all that's going on with ISIS, this book is a must read for anyone curious about how this recent FUBAR started.
The authors interview on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
This was definitely a difficult book to get through not in terms of reading level, but the subject matter. Thousands of lives lost, millions of dollars wasted, goodwill and trust destroyed - all due to criminal negligence in planning a war and the post-war.
With the war hawks looking to get into the Middle East again and all that's going on with ISIS, this book is a must read for anyone curious about how this recent FUBAR started.
The authors interview on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
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