257:, is quoted in the book as saying that he will go to his grave not knowing why the administration chose to invade Iraq. Muddled thinking, according to Packer, in the high offices of the U.S. government as to their mission and goals led to a tone deaf response to responsible, pointed criticism by lower-level people about Iraqi border security issues, problems in Iraqi police and army expansion, corruption in funding of Iraqi government programs, and other such areas. Packer views the whole enterprise of re-building Iraq as suffering from "criminal negligence".
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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.
24:
317:, 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".
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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
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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
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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
247:" for ideological reasons, expecting to only have 30,000 Americans in Iraq by September 2003. Packer describes their ideology as frankly delusional due to the challenges faced. Packer argues, "Where it mattered and could have made a difference, the advice of experts was unwelcome."
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proved both very right, in terms of the actual military invasion against
Hussein's forces that proceeded rapidly with few casualties, and very wrong, in terms of the following occupation and post-war reconstruction. According to the book, figures from Rumsfeld to Vice President
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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
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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."
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and other issues played far less of a role than usually understood. Instead, Packer reports that a small clique of policy people in key administration positions, primarily
Defense Secretary
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336:. 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".
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cherry-picking intelligence to support their positions, as well as being unable to respond to military issues such as insufficient troops, armor, and supplies.
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that he feared the "administration would not be able to do this" and also worried "about the regional reaction... the inevitable consequences of war."
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in 2005. Packer stated that the whole project became a bungled mess with
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429:"The Assassins' Gate: America in Iraq (Paperback) | Gulliver's Books"
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Favorable reviews appeared in a variety of publications such as the
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Packer writes that planning in various agencies such as
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Helen
Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism
406:"'Assassins' Gate': Bush and America's Iraq Disaster"
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recommended it. The book was also a finalist for the
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Books on anti-terrorism policy of the United States
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Foreign policy of the George W. Bush administration
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107:and its aftermath by American journalist
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103:is a non-fiction book detailing the
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379:"Grand Theories, Ignored Realities"
201:rationales for the invasion of Iraq
192:and his supporters. He later told
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123:George W. Bush administration
119:Farrar, Straus & Giroux
63:Farrar, Straus & Giroux
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575:Books about George W. Bush
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345:Helen Bernstein Book Award
105:2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq
236:National Security Council
188:worldwide articulated by
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333:San Francisco Chronicle
160:Background and contents
150:New York Public Library
137:San Francisco Chronicle
585:Books by George Packer
565:2005 non-fiction books
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595:Current affairs books
451:"The Pulitzer Prizes"
255:U.S. State Department
232:U.S. State Department
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269:Reviews and response
199:The book describes
146:2006 Pulitzer Prize
142:Overseas Press Club
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383:The New York Times
310:The New York Times
288:. You can help by
203:in the context of
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339:The book won the
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