My Year in Iraq: The Struggle to Build a Future of Hope - Couverture rigide

Bremer, Paul

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0743273893 ISBN 13 : 9780743273893

Editeur : Simon & Schuster Ltd, 2006

Synopsis

When Paul 'Jerry' Bremer, a retired diplomat and counterterrorism expert, arrived in post-war Baghdad as 'pro-consul', he was shocked. His hurried briefings in Washington by the State and Defence Departments and the C.I.A. had not prepared him for the devastation, the chaos, and the violence. With security worsening, the Iraqi army having disappeared, no viable local currency, looters running wild, the electricity system down, food supply in jeopardy and factions of Kurds, majority Shia, and the newly dispossessed Sunnis at a political standoff demanding Iraq be turned over to them. Ambassador Bremer struggled to jumpstart the economy while putting the country on the road to democracy. Bremer describes his meetings with President Bush and multiple encounters with Rumsfeld, Rice and Powell in which he pushed for additional funds for Iraq's reconstruction and warned of the dangers of prematurely turning security over to untrained Iraqi security forces and turning governance over to exiles with no plan for a constitution or elections. He describes working with Iraqi leaders on a constitution to protect individual rights and dramatizes the heroic efforts of his staff and Coalition forces to give the long-suffering Iraqi people a measure of peace and hope. Ambassador Bremer's book is vital reading if we wish to understand the immense stakes involved in this war and this troubled region.

A propos du livre

Revue de presse

'When dealing with a primary source on given events, it is customary to say that anyone interested in them must read it. In this case, read it and weep'
Financial Times 4/2

'At the end of his tour of duty, still struggling to offload sovereignty to these men [Iraqi leaders], Mr Bremer admits: 'We've become the worst of all things - an ineffective occupier'
The Economist 28/1

'The book points up the huge gap between the reality on the ground in Iraq and the wishful thinking and bad intelligence that informed administration hawks thinking'
International Herald Tribune 18/1

'One of the important questions this book leaves us contemplating is whether the venture was always doomed to failure or was sabotaged by ineptitude and carelessness'
Scotland on Sunday 12/2

'Bremer's memoir, an amalgam of spin and sincerity... paints a troubling portrait of the administration's handling of the occupation. It underscores the degree to which certain fixed ideas held by the Bush White House hobbled post-war planning, such as the notion that America could "quickly turn full authority over to a group of selected Iraqi exiles", and flags up the chasm between what was actually happening in Iraq and the wishful thinking and bad intelligence that informed the thinking of administration hawks. Oil would pay for the country's reconstruction, the US blithely assumed: in fact, sabotage of pipelines and a decrepit industry infrastructure meant it did nothing of the sort. Administrative back-up was bogged down in red tape; the generals focused on the "most wanted" list of Saddam's supporters instead of tackling the resistance effectively; above all, too few troops made lawlessness the norm from the outset'
The Scotsman 11/2

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Simon & Schuster Ltd
• Date d'édition: 2006
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0743273893
• ISBN 13: 9780743273893
• Reliure: Relié
• Numéro d'édition: 1
• Nombre de pages: 416
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible