My Year In Iraq: The Struggle To Build A Future Of Hope
(L. Paul Bremer III, Malcolm McConnell)
A fast read, the book runs through the complexity and chaos of dealing with the overhaul of a society from tyranny to freedom and democracy. Bremer details the surprises, struggles, victories and attacks he dealt with daily in order to lead the Iraqis to take democratic control over their country. Overcoming traditions of corruption, raw terrorist power, a Stalinist economy, and Hitler-like politics, he gives the ?Man on the Ground? observations that lead to critical decisions. The book exposes important policy debates on such matters as the level of security forces and intelligence failures. It shows the inner struggles among Iraqi political forces and how Bremer used his career diplomatic skills to navigate the ship of state toward democracy and freedom. The book reads like an international spy thriller: intimate talks and private pressure, delicate balancing of competing powers, all in the setting of a larger struggle between international jihadists and the western democracy. Bremer recounts policy disputes inside the top levels of Bush Administration. He discloses the power ambitions among the Iraqi exiles who wanted to take over the country but refused to make decisions. He lays out the daily challenges of replacing the currency, restarting the schools and replacing all the textbooks, managing the budget of the failed statist economy, and welding religious, tribal, ethnic, geographic, language, and political diversity into a hopeful national identity with a working economy and getting it on the road to a functioning democracy with substantive freedom in the midst of deadly attacks from within and without the country. Through it all, Bremer shows his optimism, his knowledge of history, his dedication to the Iraqi people and to the ideals of freedom and democracy. For history buffs, this is history. For political scientists, this is the great experiment of our lifetimes. For the military, this is the civilian side of war. For lovers of freedom, this is the great adventure, the test of whether freedom is just for the West and destined to die out like cowboys, or whether it is a desire inherent in the human experience.
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