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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- What Freedom Means To Me
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