The Assassins' Gate: America in Iraq
Hardback |
The Assassins' Gate: America in Iraq is a non-fiction book detailing the
Favorable reviews appeared in a variety of publications such as the
Background and contents
Packer describes his own socio-political views as being that of an "ambivalently pro-war liberal". He states that he "wanted to see a homicidal dictator removed from power before he committed mass murder again", having also agreed with the overall cause of promoting democracy and free societies worldwide articulated by George W. Bush and his supporters.[1] He later told NPR that he feared the "administration would not be able to do this" and also worried "about the regional reaction... the inevitable consequences of war."[2]
The book describes
Packer writes that planning in various agencies such as
Perhaps more interesting than the American leaders, with their pristine, naive philosophies and contradictory justifications, are the many accounts of individual Iraqis caught in the maelstrom. Nationalistic dreamers, housewives, sectarians, businessmen, exiles, military men, educators, former prisoners, and countless others are recorded with straightforward simplicity and illuminated with great insight. Equal time is given to Kurds, Sunnis, and Shiites; urban and rural residents. Also, a far-ranging account of one American, the father of a soldier killed in the war, delves into the consequences of war for those Americans without a voice in national politics.
The author concludes having panned the overall job of the administration. "Swaddled in abstract ideas," he writes, "convinced of their own righteousness, incapable of self-criticism, indifferent to accountability, they turned a difficult undertaking into a needlessly deadly one" so that when "things went wrong, they found other people to blame." He also argues, "The Iraq War was always winnable; it still is. For this very reason, the recklessness of its authors is all the harder to forgive."[1]
Reviews and response
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The New York Times published praise from literary critic Michiko Kakutani, who lauded the book's "wide-angled, overarching take on the Iraq war". She referred to what she saw as "Mr. Packer's lucid ability to pull together information from earlier books and integrate it with his own reporting from Washington and Iraq." She also called the work an "authoritative and tough-minded new book".[1]
Fareed Zakaria wrote for The New York Times Book Review that "Packer provides page after page of vivid description of the haphazard, poorly planned and almost criminally executed occupation of Iraq." Zakaria also remarked, "In reading him we see the staggering gap between abstract ideas and concrete reality." Praise also appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle. Reviewer Yonatan Lupu called it a "book that is not only relevant but discerning and provocative", and he lauded it for having "vivid detail and balanced analysis".[3]
The book won the New York Public Library’s Helen Bernstein Book Award.[5]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g Kakutani, Michiko (7 October 2005). "Grand Theories, Ignored Realities". The New York Times.
- ^ a b c d e "'Assassins' Gate': Bush and America's Iraq Disaster". NPR.
- ^ a b "The Assassins' Gate: America in Iraq (Paperback) | Gulliver's Books". www.shopgulliversbooks.com. Archived from the original on 2016-03-03.
- ^ "The Pulitzer Prizes".
- ^ a b "George Packer". The New Yorker.
See also
See also
- Foreign policy of the George W. Bush administration
- Invasion of Iraq
- Iraqi civil war
Related books
- Imperial Hubris
- Plan of Attack
- State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III