Book Description
A profound and personal journey to the heart of a shattered nation.
In March 2003, Patrick Cockburn traveled secretly to Iraq just before the invasion, and has covered the war from Baghdad ever since. In The Occupation, Cockburn describes the fighting on the ground as Saddam's armies collapsed, the looting of Baghdad, the failure of the US occupation, the springs of the resistance and how it turned into a full scale uprising. Explaining how the three main Iraqi communities, the Kurds, the Shia and the Sunni, responded to the growing conflict, he gives us a nuanced portrait of daily life in Baghdad, of how Iraqis themselves reacted to the invasion and the long war and occupation that followed.
Customer Reviews:
Gripping, Horrifying.......2007-08-12
Patrick Cockburn is a British journalist who has lived in Iraq for a long time--and who supplements that with having been close to and covered the similar occupation by Britain of Northern Ireland.
So he is miles ahead of U.S. journalists who were "embedded" with the U.S. military.
The "embedded" journalists saw only what the U.S. military wanted them to see.
The U.S. military had learned an important lesson in Vietnam: NOT to avoid invading a country and alienating its people, but to avoid letting journalists see it and report it. One of the big factors in opposition to the Vietnam War was that every night on TV, people saw burning villages, killed civilians, wounded and dead U.S. soldiers.
Cockburn saw what he wanted to see.
But even in that, he was limited--because Iraq has become so dangerous that even journalists are fair game for kidnappers and killers.
Still, he does a good job.
His reporting (because of the danger of traveling) is anecdotal, but it is telling.
And he understands the politics and ethnic dynamics in Iraq--which the U.S. administration either did not understand or did not care about.
He also understands nationalism: no nation, no matter how bad its government, likes to have outsiders invade and take over.
This lesson is all-important. It is the lesson of Vietnam. It is the lesson of the American Revolution. And, now, of course, it is the lesson of Iraq.
Sunnis, Shia, and Kurds hate each other and without Saddam's fierce repression, civil war was inevitable. But they all hate the invading U.S. soldiers and administrators (and contractors, who take their work, when Iraqi unemployment is 50% to 70%) more.
Cockburn states that the U.S. occupation was bound to fail, given the tribalism and sectarianism of Iraq. Be he also outlines how the stupendous arrogance, ignorance, and incompetence of the Bush administration made it far worse.
On the other hand, we should all be glad that Bush IS incompetent. If he were competent, he would be Hitler.
Anti American point of view of our effort........2007-08-04
From the spelling and from the total contempt of American and Americans I gather that the Author is British. And that is mainly what this book is about, contempt for American actions, and to a certain extent contempt for British actions where the Brits are allied and trying to help our noble cause.
What the book is about:
`The Occupation', is mainly a list of things that we have done wrong, and how terribly bad Iraq is after American liberation. And the truth is things are bad here, and there have been mistakes and misdeeds, and there is plenty of sad events and misery, enough to write this short book.
If the book had been written by an educated insurgent, I don't imagine it would be much different. The author writes of no American successes, as though for the entire war that has gone on for four years, that nothing has ever been done right. I expected at least a notional objectivism so the author could claim journalistic integrity or something, but he makes no such attempt. He does write plenty about the successes of the insurgents and how they are undefeatable.
The author writes that the only reason for American success in Fallujah was our superior and overused firepower, but that it was really a success of the insurgency because they learned not to fight us that way. He seems to think that the only reason we ever win anything is because of our superior firepower.
The author concedes nothing to us in terms of good will, stoic effort, any talent or ability. He offers not one example of anything that we have done right. He offers no useful suggestions of what we could do to improve the situation. No useful or non-useful suggestions really. Just that we are bad greedy, incompetent, amoral and corrupt. And the Brits in that they are on our side, are only slightly better, but are also bad on average in all those categories, because they are on our side.
Readability:
The book was fairly easy to read, and I read the whole thing, so there must have been some parts of interest. There are some interesting personal stories. But really I have probably had my fill of tragic human interest stories in Iraq. When reading the book, I was hoping for something useful, some suggestion or idea about how we could be doing things better over here. But I came up empty in that regard.
My first exposure to any book by Patrick Cockburn.......2007-06-01
I won't give it 5 stars because the writing style is too informal and he doesn't follow a chronological line; he jumps back and forth in time between chapters. Still, this is a valuable account of daily events in the lives of Iraqis, which have largely escaped our news services. It's tragedy piled upon tragedy, and if it weren't a situation full of death, destruction, desperation, and horror, it'd almost be comical.
It is certainly an easy read and it's hard to put down... you'll be done with it in no time.
Definitely a valuable contribution to anyone with an interest in the history of the second war against Iraq.
Excellent survey of a disaster.......2007-01-05
Patrick Cockburn, the Independent's Middle East correspondent, has written a vivid first-hand account of the US-British occupation of Iraq. He notes of the war's prelude, the 1990s sanctions on Iraq, "Imposing sanctions on all ordinary Iraqis was a cruel collective punishment, one of the great man-made disasters of the last century."
He shows that opposition to the invasion and occupation of Iraq radicalized most of the suicide bombers in Iraq. An Israeli study also concluded that almost all the foreign fighters in Iraq had been radicalized by the invasion. A Saudi investigation showed that few suicide bombers had any contact with al Qaeda before 2003.
Cockburn details the brutalities of the occupation, the imperial arrogance, the use of mercenaries, the deepening religious divisions, the vile sectarian killings, the lawlessness and insecurity, the rampant corruption and the economic chaos (oil, electricity, water and sewerage are all still worse than they were pre-war). All lead to growing national resistance.
The Bush administration claimed that toppling Saddam would stabilise the Middle East. Instead the invasion and occupation have destabilised all the region's countries. The war has destroyed Iraq, worsened the prospects of peace and justice for the Palestinian people and strengthened the al Qaeda terrorists.
The war was `a terrible mistake', as the Royal Institute for International Affairs recently noted. US General William Odom, a former head of the National Security Agency, called the war `the greatest strategic disaster in American history'. We need our troops back home, to defend our borders against the terrorists, people-smugglers and drug-runners generated by the Labour government's criminal wars against Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq.
excellent.......2006-12-29
Very well written, detailed and inciteful, highly recommended for anyone who wants more than the "embedded" corporate media perspective.
Book Description
“Perhaps one day I may forgive you for putting
us under curfew for forty-two days, but I will never forgive you for making us live with my mother-
in-law for what seemed, then, more like
forty-two years.”
Irreverent, darkly funny, unexpected, and very unlike any other writing on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Sharon and My Mother-in-Law describes Palestinian architect Suad Amiry’s experience of living in the Occupied Territories.
Based on diaries and e-mail correspondence that Amiry kept to maintain her sanity from 1981 to 2004, the book evokes, through a series of vignettes, the frustrations, cabin fever, and downright misery of daily life in the West Bank town of Ramallah, with its curfews, roadblocks, house-to-house searches, and violence. Amiry writes about the enormous difficulty of moving from one place to another, the torture of falling in love with someone from another town, the absurdity of her dog receiving a Jerusalem identity card when thousands of Palestinians could not do so, and the impossibility of acquiring a gas mask from the Israeli Civil Administration during the first Gulf War in 1991. There are also the challenges of shopping during curfew breaks, the trials of having her ninety-two-year-old mother-in-law living in her house during a forty-two-day curfew, and thoughts on Israel’s Separation Wall.
With a wickedly sharp ear for dialogue and a keen eye for the most telling details, Amiry gives us an original, ironic, and firsthand glimpse into the absurdity——and agony——of life in the Occupied Territories.
Customer Reviews:
Superb book - you can't put it down........2007-07-04
I read this book within a day, I just couldn't put it down, it was so beautifully written, and so easy to read.
Suad Amiry has a remarkable ability to say in one sentence what other writers take three pages over. A single sentence can be so thought-provoking, you consider all the many implications that follow from just one statement.
Despite the misery of her situation, Suad's defiance of her occupiers is hilarious - what a courageous and spunky woman! Her frankness and honesty of her own feelings, including her failings, are also very impressive.
Well done to Suad Amiry, I eagerly look forward to her next book - I hope she will write one!
arafat and my hot flashes.......2006-12-26
Arafat and my hot flashes - an Israeli response to Suad Amiry's Sharon and my Mother-in-Law.
After reading Suad Amiry's novel Sharon and my mother in law I was extremely moved ... as an Israeli, living in Tel-Aviv at ta time when all around me people were "bursting at the Seams" or merely committing suicide at their leisure while taking other people's lives, limbs, children and women with them, I could identify myself with her agony at not being able to move freely...
It was Saturday eve; I always felt weird on Saturday eve, uneasy. On a verge of a panic attack. Maybe it was to do with the gloom I experienced at home, as a child on Sat. eve (My mother was a BA -graduate of Auschwitz). It was exactly 2 years ago, me and my not-such-a-great-hero, husband, who was an extremely gifted and intelligent man but the biggest coward if there's ever was one, were having a row, after a long week ... I wanted to venture out. Out of doors...out of our building; living in Tel Aviv had become a Russian roulette ... the streets were very quiet and empty ... not a dog in sight, the stray cats had totally disappeared, everyone was waiting for the next one, and we didn't know where it would come from. I wanted to go to the movies.
"Are you out of your mind?!!!" Gideon screamed. I couldn't sit at home anymore I had to go out. To a coffee place, "A coffee place?!!! Now?!!" Only yesterday one of the most popular coffee places in Tel Aviv blew up.
"Ok then, the bar around the corner is always empty! Why would a suicide bomber come there, to kill us and the barman?". I thought that was reasonable enough.
"I don't know why?" argued Gideon back "he might just get fed up half way to the Hilton, did you think about that?".
I tried the movies, again.
"Crowded places?!!! Hello? Anybody home?", pointing at my head.
"but we never had a suicider at the cinema!!", I tried to reason.
"Exactly!!!", exclaimed Gideon with a big smile, winning the argument.
I felt a hot flash coming on. It was August and I just had to have some air. "I don't care!!!", I screamed, "I am going out!!! Now!"
All of a sudden a siren was heard, and another one and another one, a string of sirens always meant a suicide bomber, and the ambulances were rushing to the scene. We looked at each other with terror and turned on the TV. There was a suicide bomber at Michael's Pub, a few minutes away from us. It was my son's favorite hang out; thank God he had been living in Holland for the last few years. He didn't even come home for a visit; I wouldn't let him, my only son...
Gideon, quickly rushed to the phone to ring his three children (from his 2 ex wives) they were all in their twenties ... that was his usual routine, every time a bomber hit the town. Then he would take his clooney (Cloonex - a tranquilizer) I was always angry when he took it, being a practitioner of Chinese medicine, it was totally against my principals. But he couldn't care less. He was slowly becoming addicted to clooney.
We stayed at home glued to the TV watching the horrible scenes of children, women, blood, screaming, etc etc. Gideon began his usual snores beside me, the clooney had knocked him out!
The next day we heard on the news that Palestinians were under curfew ....
There are always three sides to every divorce: the wife, the husband and the truth...
We are having a terrible, endless bloody row: it's time to stop talking about the past. I would expect an educated person like Suad not to live in the past, but to accept our existence in Israel and to start talking from that point. We have no where else to go, and the experience of living as a Jew outside Israel has not been very successful ... I could attach a picture of my mother's green number tattooed on her arm, she is only 74, she was 12 when they took her to the camps, one of the last survivors in the world ... Tell me Suad, the truth: this is not about the occupied territories. Barak begged Arafat to take it back. This is about Jaffa...according to your book. Do you expect my mother to go back to Czechoslovakia? And look for her confiscated home? And what about me? I was born here, am I to take a dive in the sea?
Yours sincerely,
Yael Stern O'Dwyer
Worth reading with some caveats for the uninformed reader.......2006-09-16
I enjoyed reading this book but was chilled at the author's inclusion of "1929" as a year of Palestinian "pride" without mention of the atrocities of the Hebron pogroms. "Text without context is pretext" as the PLO's old friend Jesse Jackson used to remind us. Tom Segev's One Palestine, Complete: Jews and Arabs Under the British Mandate (which alot of Amazon reviewers think has an anti-Zionist bias) would be a good corrective for the reader new to these issues.
Amiry is not a fanatic or a fundamentalist and this is her P.O.V. and her life. Can she address the moral failures of the Palestinian leadership, beginning with the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and ending in Hamas? Maybe, but this is not that book.
Our hope for peace? We're in trouble.......2006-09-03
I picked up this book at Ben-Gurion airport at a time when I could have used an uncommonly witty look at life under the Occupation, but alas, I found nothing witty or uncommon about Suad Amiry's wonderfully named but lazily written screed -- and if you are a thinking person, you'll find nothing funny about her bigotry.
Some parts rattled me, but it wasn't her so-called reportage, which anyone familiar with the region will recognize as the usual embroidering. I am not saying that life under occupation is not difficult and sometimes brutal. However, my editor's antenna went up more than once. Naturally, Amiry's stories are impossible to verify.
No, it was her attitude throughout the book that unnerved me. For instance, Amiry dismisses out-of-hand the very public military inquiry into reports of looting by Israeli soldiers. And yet she cheerleads without shame for Palestinian thievery, and even opines that Palestinians aren't stealing enough from Jews.
And the child-free Amiry treats us to a charming vignette, her tacit approval ringing loud and clear, of Arab mothers warning their mischievous children: "Behave or the Israeli soldiers will shoot you."
Interestingly, on my flight to Israel, just in time for the Israel-Hizbollah war, I read Amos Oz's new book, an essay, really, called "How to Cure a Fanatic." And one of his cures is humor. If you can laugh at yourself, you are in no danger of becoming a fanatic. Sadly, Amiry can make fun of her neighbors and relatives, and she can indulge in the most racist of rants against Jews, knowing someone will find them funny. But she cannot laugh at herself. I suppose we should be grateful that she left out the hilarious phenomenon of suicide bombers.
In the end, I pitied Amiry -- an obviously unstable middle-aged woman who I suspect would have been unstable even if she had stayed in her native Jordan. If the Israeli occupation hadn't driven her to distraction, something else most assuredly would have. But if you can blame the Occupation for your woes, so much the better. How good and pleasant it is to be a victim. How little responsibility you bear.
Life OVER the Occupation.......2006-07-09
Suad Amiry's book is very witty and easy to read. The book is based on a compilation of emails, letters and Amiry's recollection of the various events. Amiry offers a portrayal of life of a relatively well off Palestinian family under Israeli occupation. The Israeli occupation and the siege of their city feature prominently in the book but almost as natural disasters or "Act of God" ..so they are there thrown into the mix making ordinary complex life even more complicated. The politics of the occupation are touched upon but clearly what is central is just the day to day life.
The title of the book is very much a reflection of the light hearted style of the book but also of the very menacing undertones. In the United States Sharon largely has(d) the reputation of being a tough minded and determined leader and with the Gaza withdrawal in 2005 as a peacemaker; whereas in most of the world outside of the US Sharon is seen as a ruthless cruel man responsible for the death and destruction of many who was sanctioned by his own country and was even wanted for trial on war crime charges in Europe. For the Palestinians I imagine Sharon had simply been a brutal merciless monster; the title Sharon & My Mother in Law with that background is therefore very ironic! A daughter - mother in law relationship in a middle eastern environment is never straight forward ..the very words mother in law carry a whole world of conations. The very title of the book comes across funny to any Middle Eastern; equating or even putting Sharon & mother in law in the same sentence carries with the wit and the determination that comes across in Amiry's words.
Many reviewers of this book talked about the book illustrating the humanity of the Palestinians, I doubt if that has been on Amiry's mind; for those who doubt the humanity of the Palestinians better read John Grisham or watch Pirates of the Caribbean; this book celebrates the humanity of the Palestinians and the triumph of their spirit.
Book Description
An urgent and searing exposé of the "peace process" by a prominent Israeli thinker.
The Road Map to Nowhere is a devastating and timely book, essential to understanding the current state of the Israel/Palestine crisis and the propaganda that infects its coverage. Based on analysis of information in the mainstream Israeli media, it argues that the current road map has brought no real progress and that, under cover of diplomatic successes, Israel is using the road map to strengthen its grip on the remaining occupied territories. Exploring the Gaza pullout of 2005, the West Bank wall and the collapse of Israeli democracy, Reinhart examines the gap between myth—the Israeli leadership's public affairs achievement that has led the West to believe that a road map is in fact being implemented—and bitter reality. Not only has nothing fundamentally changed, she argues, but the Palestinians continue to lose more of their land and are pushed into smaller and smaller enclaves, surrounded by the new wall constructed by Sharon.
Customer Reviews:
Brilliant study showing how to achieve peace between Israel and the Palestinians.......2007-06-14
Tanya Reinhart was a professor of philosophy at Tel Aviv University until her recent untimely death. This book examines the last four years of Israel's 40-year illegal occupation of Palestine. She shows how, under the pretence of ending its occupation, the Israeli state has reimposed military control of the occupied territories.
Gaza and the West Bank are a system of prisons, sealed enclaves. The Israeli state controls all movements of goods, services and people. It plans to retain control of these enclaves, from the outside, retaining the army's `freedom of action'.
This is in defiance of the two-thirds of the Israeli people who have consistently backed ending the occupation. 100,000-strong demonstrations have demanded, "Leave the Territories - Save the Country."
Reinhart describes the Palestinians' struggle against the illegal Separation Wall, which the Israeli state wants to be its permanent, unilaterally-decided border. The Wall annexes 40% of the West Bank. If completed, it would rob 400,000 Palestinians of their land and livelihoods.
On 25 June 2003, Palestinian organisations, including Hamas, announced that they would cease fire for three months. The Israeli and US governments immediately responded by rejecting the ceasefire and demanding the `dismantling' of Hamas and other organisations; the Israeli army killed two Palestinians, including a woman. After six weeks' ceasefire, the Israeli state resumed its policy of assassinations, killing 14 Hamas leaders in the first half of August 2003. The EU helped by placing Hamas' political leadership on its list of terrorist organisations.
In February 2004, Sharon unveiled his disengagement plan, which was a feint to cover building the Wall. In September 2005, the British Presidency of the EU demanded that the Palestinian Authority rein in the militants, while allowing Israel full freedom of action, saying, "The Presidency recognises Israel's right to act in self-defence." This is the formula that the USA usually employs to back the Israeli state's assassinations policy and aggressions.
In January 2006, Hamas won the elections. Israel, the EU and the USA at once demanded that it recognise Israel, accept all existing agreements and renounce violence. They did not make similar demands of Israel, yet Israel does not recognise Palestine, respect existing agreements or renounce violence.
There is a road to peace, a simple, unilateral solution available to Israel - end the occupation.
Reinhart's Must Read: a Reality Check for US media.......2007-05-18
Reinhart compares and contrasts what we read in the media with the reality on the ground. It is a stunning indictment of western -- and particularly American -- media, as well as an indictment of those who are relentlessly pursuing a genocidal treatment of those whose deeds they covet.
Israel/Palestine in black & white.......2007-03-29
A "must read" book for those interested in an analysis of a complex situation rendered in black & white by a colorblind Ms. Reinhart. The book will give you many reasons to hate Israelis/Jews. If you prefer to learn about the conflict, you may want to read Tom Segev's and Raja Shehadeh's books instead.
The truth about the "peace process".......2007-02-22
Tanya Reinhart's latest book is a worthy successor to her Israel/Palestine: How to end the War of 1948. This is must reading for Americans, especially for those who do not speak or read Hebrew. Prof. Reinhart's searing analysis of Israeli media reveals the full extent of Israel's failure to comply with even the most basic requirements of the "Roadmap", Further, her revelations will be news to anyone who relies on information from the US press, though they are not surprising to those who have witnessed the daily tragedy that is enacted under Israel's Occupation of Palestine. While her analysis is unflinching and therefore not very optimistic, she ends her book on a note of hope. The basis for this hope is the unwavering commitment to reconciliation by some in the Israeli Peace Movement and the dedicated steadfastness of Palestinian communities like Bil'in , who have resisted the Wall and the confiscation of their lands.
The best book on Israel-Palestine current situation.......2007-01-04
Tanya Reinhart's former book: Israel/Palestine - How to End the !948 War, was the best account and analysis of the Oslo Years and the Second Intiphada. The new book, The Road Map to Nowhere, covers the Years 2002-2006, and contributes as no other book, in information, analysis and assesment of the current situation.
Book Description
In August 1942, Hitler directed all German state institutions to assist Heinrich Himmler, the chief of the SS and the German police, in eradicating armed resistance in the newly occupied territories of Eastern Europe and Russia. The directive for “combating banditry” (Bandenbekämpfung), became the third component of the Nazi regime’s three-part strategy for German national security, with genocide (Endlösung der Judenfrage, or “the Final Solution of the Jewish Question”) and slave labor (Erfassung, or “Registration of Persons to Hard Labor”) being the better-known others.
An original and thought-provoking work grounded in extensive research in German archives, Hitler’s Bandit Hunters focuses on this counterinsurgency campaign, the anvil of Hitler’s crusade for empire. Bandenbekämpfung portrayed insurgents as political and racial bandits, criminalized to a greater degree than enemies of the state; moreover, violence against them was not constrained by the prevailing laws of warfare.
Philip Blood explains how German forces embraced the Bandenbekämpfung doctrine, demonstrating the equal culpability of both the SS police forces and the “heroic” Waffen-SS combat arm and shattering the contrived postwar distinctions between them. He challenges the traditional view of Himmler as an armchair general and bureaucrat, exposing him as the driving force behind one of the most successful security campaigns in history, and delves into the contentious issue of the complicity of ordinary German police, soldiers, and citizens, as well as the citizens of occupied territories, in these state-sponsored manhunts. This book provokes new debates on the Nazi terrorization of Europe, the blind acquiescence of many, and the courageous resistance of the few.
Customer Reviews:
Dry Reading.......2007-08-22
This is a well researched book. If you desire information on the connection between ideologue and practice within the demented regime of Hitler's Third Reich, this work certainly fills the bill. It is rather dry reading. By that I mean, the flow of the information is sometimes overwhelming in detail and difficult to comprehend especially since the book lacks maps to show where the actions are taking place. The author includes a nice reference list of terms used and personalities involved. I found myself constantly checking these reference to ensure understanding. It is a labor to read and it took me well beyond the normal time I spend on a book to complete. It remains, however, the best book available on the brutality of Hitler and his followers. I left with a better appreciation of the planning and control the Germans employed to rid the conquered areas of those they considered hinderances to their dream of a new Germania. The cold blooded manner in which people and their possessions are handled brings a chill to your spine. How can human beings be so insensitive? Read the book to appreciate how man can inflict untold suffering on his fellow man without so much as a sigh of regret.
Analyzing German anti-guerilla campaigns in Poland/Russia.......2006-12-19
One of the longstanding beliefs of World War II has been the separation between the Waffen-SS, an elite combat arm, and the SS Police Forces who are blamed for deliberate killings, concentration camps, etc. In this book the author examines the actions of the two SS groups in fighting the guerilla forces left behind as the Soviet armies retreated into the Soviet Union.
His conclusion is that the two forces were not nearly so separate as the post war stories would have you believe. He points out that 'across all the years of research, no examples were found of SS officers refusing to participate in crimes, or to refuse medals for having so participated.
As an secondary point, this book discusses the techniques used in fighting irregular forces. As the US is now involved in such a campaign in Iraq, there is perhaps a lesson to be learned. On the other hand, it is not clear that the American forces could act in the way of the SS. This leaves the question open as to what to do in Iraq.
Book Description
“An urgent book.”—Arundhati Roy
Three years after the start of the war in Iraq, violence and misery continue to plague the country, and conservatives and liberals alike are struggling with the question of when—and under what circumstances—U.S. and coalition forces should leave. In this cogent and compelling book, Anthony Arnove argues that the U.S. occupation is the major source of instability and suffering for the Iraqi people. Challenging the idea that George W. Bush was ever interested in bringing democracy to Iraq—and the view widely held across the political spectrum that it would be more damaging to leave prematurely—Arnove explores the real reasons behind the invasion. He shows why continuing the occupation is a wildly unrealistic and reckless strategy that makes the world a more dangerous place.
Iraq: The Logic of Withdrawal concludes by laying out a clear vision for the antiwar movement, one that engages soldiers, military families, and the many communities affected by the occupation, who together, Arnove argues, can build the coalition needed to bring the troops home.
Customer Reviews:
Best Book on the Topic.......2007-08-17
The book is only 105 pages long, but it explains the US/British foreign policies that wanted the war, how the evidence necessary to invade was manufactured, and also the misreporting of the war by the media. It's extremely concise and valueable. The author even manages to squeeze in some semi-tangents that are important. My favorite one is the discussion of the Democratic Party and their belligerence - I just get tired of hearing that the Democratic Party is an anti-war party.
A third of the book is devoted to explaining why the invasion was sought after (as well as the occupation of Afghanistan). Then the book moves to focus on the realities of the war's fighting, and how it is covered. After the end of all "major combat operations" in May 2003 the continued attacks on US troops was blamed on Hussein, who was captured in December 2003. After the fighting continued, it was blamed on foreign interference. The administration said a provisional Iraqi government was needed. After the "free" elections on January 2005 the fighting continued. Since then, the administration has been blaming it on al-Qaeda and other foreigners, which Arnove shows not to be the case. These steps of blaming a domestic resistance to other causes is strikingly similar to that of Vietnam. After facing continued resistance, our policies changed to describe and fight those false causes (strategic-hamlet program-->search-and-destroy operations-->pacification program-->Operation Phoenix-->Vietnamization (which was only initiated after the Tet Offensive of 1968 awakened people to the grim truth of the war). Also discussed in this portion of the book (what's really going on over there) is the liberalization of Iraq's economy - It's straight from the IMF/World Bank playbook. The last section of the book argues, after looking at why the invasion occured and what's happening there now, that we should leave Iraq and provide aid until they're back on their feet.
I'd also recommend that an interested reader look into Bush in Babylon: The Recolinisation of Iraq and America's confrontation with revolutionary change in the Middle East, 1948-83.
A logical argument, and yet more troops are being sent now.......2006-10-10
Arnove's book lays out, in a pretty straight-forward manner (105 pages, not counting the foreword, afterword, appendix, acknowledgement, and notes) the case for pulling all U.S. troops out of Iraq immediately. I read a few other books about Iraq before reading this one, and I would suggest that to any reader, just so they have a frame of reference while reading it. Arnove tries to use well-known quotes and facts to support his argument, and this helps, but there is still so much information on such a complex issue, that I think it would be difficult to read this and fully comprehend it with no prior knowledge of Iraq.
Arnove makes a very compelling case. What's sad is that he's using readily available information to make it, and yet we're now sending more troops to Iraq.
I think the only fault of the book is expecting that it will drive people to action. Arnove isn't really presenting anything new, just laying all the facts out for us in a very clean, logical way, almost like he's writing his thesis. While this style might work if Arnove were a lawyer convicting Bush of war crimes, it just serves to further highlight how this administration works above the law and gets away with it. Even with this much clear evidence against the war it continues on.
Excellent case for bringing the troops home now.......2006-07-13
This outstanding book makes the case for the immediate withdrawal of all foreign troops from Iraq. This would meet the democratic demands of the Iraqi people, and also of the American and British peoples. In a September 2005 New York Times-CBS News poll, 52% supported the immediate withdrawal of US troops.
Arnove sums up, "Every single argument the Bush administration made to justify the invasion of Iraq has turned out to be false. Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction, posed no imminent threat to the United States, and had no connection to al-Qaeda or to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Iraq was attacked not because it had weapons of mass destruction, but because it did not (a fact that has not been lost on other potential targets of U. S. intervention). U. S. soldiers were not greeted as liberators, and the occupation has not paid for itself, or required few troops, or been quickly concluded. Nor has the occupation made the world safer or reduced the threat of weapons of mass destruction. Indeed, it has made Iraq, the Middle East, and the world far more dangerous."
From the start, the war on Iraq was a huge lie. As Arnove writes, "The attacks of September 11, 2001, provided the pretext the Bush administration needed to portray an offensive war to reshape the Middle East as a defensive measure to protect the people of the United States."
Everything we are told about the war is untrue. For example, we are told that the occupation troops conduct a humanitarian war on the ground. In reality, the USA is waging war largely by massive, unreported, bombing: the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing alone dropped more than 500,000 tons of bombs on Iraq between May 2003 and December 2005. We are told that there is no national resistance attacking the foreign occupier, just terrorists attacking civilians. In reality, for every attack against civilians, there are a hundred against the occupying forces.
British governments have always lied to us about matters of war and peace, of security and the national interest. This Labour government is different only because its lies have been more stupid, so that we have rumbled it more quickly.
Articulate, politically-sophisticated.......2006-07-11
Q: How many pages does it take to make a compelling case for immediate withdrawal from Iraq? A: Apparently not many when you have logic on your side!
It is a myth that Bush & Co.--though misguided--had the best of intentions at heart when they ordered the military invasion of Iraq in March of 2003. And this unfortunate myth prostrates the antiwar movement when it deludes itself into believing that a bloody occupation stemming from an illegal war can somehow be salvaged into something beneficial for anybody besides Halliburton.
Anthony Arnove's book explains the real roots of the Iraq war in the context of power and profit (not misguided humanitarianism), summarizes for the reader three years of blood-spattered occupation history, provides eight excellent reasons for immediate withdrawal and then discusses the ABC's of anti-imperialist struggle drawn from the history of the Vietnam War.
This isn't a catchall antiwar book to give to your chicken hawk uncle at the next family reunion. This is a book for the 50 million Americans who already consider themselves part of the antiwar movement and want some real answers about stopping the blood-letting. Or as the author puts it, "...the U.S. left in particular needs far greater clarity about the reasons for the war, the political context of the war, and an effective strategy for ending it." (page 98)
This is the most articulate, politically sophisticated yet easy-to-read appeal to bring our loved ones home now that I've read since the war began.
But don't trust this synopsis--read the book.
Very Good Analysis of the Illogic for this war and for staying there further.......2006-07-10
This should be mandatory reading for anyone who has bought into the lie filled Bush regime change rhetoric regarding Iraq. A Neocon filled US administration which has been proven wrong in virtually every single one its Iraq pre-war and current engagement contentions.
From "Mission Accomplished", to "Bring It On", to "...the insurgency is in its last throes..." to lies about active WMD programs, lies about Yellow Cake material from Niger, lies about Saddams mythical connections to Al Qaida and 911, this book helps unearth many of the utterly false, and utterly illogical claims told by the current Bush Administration in D.C. regarding their oil based, "Project for the New American Century" military actions in Iraq.
Another reviewer above stated the following, "Suppose the US pulls out and Mr. Arnove is proven wrong. A civil war breaks out."
Hello, a civil war had already broken out in Iraq in case you missed the last 3 years of activity over there!!! That's what the insurgency is, it is a Civil War action! A civil war initiated solely, 100% by the Bush Neocon doctrine in Iraq beginning in April 2003. As far as the war spreading further in the Middle East, there was no war in Iraq prior to the US military illegally attacking that country in 2003. Again, there was no war there! And there is nothing to indicate that our continued military presence in Iraq is reducing the insurgency after 3+ years of occupation. In fact, all logical signs are that it is merely fueling futher insurgency recruits and fueling further deaths in that civil war.
And what happens if the Iraq Shiite cleric Al Sadr, an extremely anti-US fundamentalist, is eventually elected the majority leader of Iraq, which could easily happen given that he's in the majority Shiite sect. Do we then remove him from power because Iraq elected him in a "democratic" fashion, but we now disagree with whom they elected?
The attempt at analogy between US highway deaths versus military deaths is comparable to believing that "Fox News" is "fair and balanced" reporting. If you believe that you probably also believe that there is no civil war yet being waged in Iraq too, LOL.
Very good read, and if you want further information on the real motives behind the Bush Administrations Iraq regime change, do a google search on "The Project For a New American Century" and read up on the true motives behind this illegal war of Don Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz and other Neocons whom Bush has surrounded himself with.
Book Description
In April 2002, the Israeli army reoccupied Ramallah, where the Palestinian Authority has its headquarters. A tank blocked Raja Shehadeh's road; Israeli soldiers seized his brother's home and used him as a human shield during a search, as his frightened wife and children watched. When the Birds Stopped Singing reveals the rage and terror of daily life in these dire circumstances, showing how time passes for people imprisoned in their own homes, how they cope with being forbidden to cross the neighborhood to help a sick relative or dying friend. A chronicle of lives that somehow endure under impossible circumstances, Shehadeh's diary is a compelling and important document of a problem that seems increasingly beyond solution.
Customer Reviews:
Very Powerful Account of Palestinian Ordinary Citizens.......2006-10-05
This book should be read by all of the Western world to gain a perspective on the ordinary citizen living in the Occupied territory of Palestine. So often, I don't think we actually realize what "Occupation" means and how much power remains in Israel's hands even when there is not an actual occupation of a specific city. The author helped me understand the Oslo Accord and how it failed to bring justice to the region.
This account ( using a diary format) really brings home what curfew means to daily life and the fear which comes when soldiers invade without regard to human feelings. Although written in 2003, I'm sure this holds true in 2006, and certainly makes me more attentive to news coming out of their continued struggle.
Outstanding and very powerful book.......2005-10-27
This book left me horrified at what is going on in the Middle East. It is even worse than I thought - and I thought I knew a lot about the situation already. Raja's day to day account, written in the form of a diary, gives a first hand account of what it is like to live under Occupation.
This is hell on earth; and we in America are financing it all, with our 3 billion dollars a year that we send to Israel in military aid.
The greatest threat to World Peace lies here, and we are paying for it.
Average.......2004-04-09
(...)I purchased "When the Birds Stopped Singing" without hesitation as I looked forward to his unique human rights and legal perspective as an adult during the intifada. While his writing style is still engaging, the content is not as strong. This small book is simply a collection of short diary entries that depict his daily experiences during the difficult times. While the situation itself is heart breaking, the entries become redunant with several descriptions of outrageous Israeli soldier behavior, Palestinian subjugation and rebellion, and the difficulties of living some semblance of a normal life under such circumstances. I did not find anything new or compelling in this book, rather I felt I was perusing a random personal journal that was likely never meant to be published. Shehadeh's human rights and legal perspective never seemed to emerge in his entries which left this as an average book that will likely only appeal to those who have not heard many personal accounts of Palestinian life during the intifiada.
life goes on.......2003-12-15
This book is about the siege of Ramallah and Shehadeh tells a heartbreaking story, with plenty of villians to go around. I expected that. To my surprise, what makes the book worth reading are the heroes. Not the Isreali soldiers. Not the PLO. Not Islamic Jihad or Hamas. The heroes of this book are the everyday people who actually try to live a normal life in the West Bank.
Book Description
This remarkable book examines how the Islamist movement and its competition with secular-nationalist factions have transformed the identities of ordinary Palestinians since the first Palestinian uprising, or intifada, of the late 1980s. Drawing upon his years living in the region and more than eighty in-depth interviews, Loren Lybarger offers a riveting account of how activists within a society divided by religion, politics, class, age, and region have forged new identities in response to shifting conditions of occupation, peace negotiations, and the fragmentation of Palestinian life.
Lybarger personally witnessed the tragic days of the first intifada, the subsequent Oslo Peace Process and its failures, and the new escalation of violence with the second intifada in 2000. He rejects the simplistic notion that Palestinians inevitably fall into one of two camps: pragmatists who are willing to accept territorial compromise, and extremists who reject compromise in favor of armed struggle. Listening carefully to Palestinians themselves, he reveals that the conflicts evident among the Islamists and secular nationalists are mirrored by the internal struggles and divided loyalties of individual Palestinians.
Identity and Religion in Palestine is the first book of its kind in English to capture so faithfully the rich diversity of voices from this troubled part of the world. Lybarger provides vital insights into the complex social dynamics through which Islamism has reshaped what it means to be Palestinian.
Average customer rating:
- Germans do invade Great Britain in WWII
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The Model Occupation: The Channel Islands Under German Rule 1940-1945
Madeleine Bunting
Manufacturer: Harpercollins
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Channel Islands at War: A German Perspective
ASIN: 0002552426 |
Customer Reviews:
Germans do invade Great Britain in WWII.......1997-08-07
One of Hitler's aims in World War II is to invade
Great Britain. Many people believe that the Royal
Air Force's efforts in the Battle of Britain thwarted
that aim. Not so. The Germans did invade and
occupy a series of British islands off the French
coast.
Madeleine Bunting writes a fairly interesting
account of the invasion and occupation. The book
also covers the miniscule and not too succesful
underground movement to defy German occupation.
The book questions whether the Channel Islanders
were guilty of collaboration with the Germans.
Afterall, Bunting mentions that several of the
local women married Germans and that the under-
ground movement never took hold.
Some of the stories about occupation life are quite
interesting, but not everything Bunting brings up
is satisfactorily answered. Case in point is the
concentration camp on the island of Alderney. She
mentions that it existed, but doesn't dig deep
enough to discover the full extent of possible
atrocities.
Book Description
An instant classic on America's catastrophic—and indefinite—occupation of Iraq.
"Ah, the freedom. Look, we have the gas-line freedom, the looting freedom, the killing freedom, the rape freedom, the hash-smoking freedom. I don't know what to do with all this freedom."—Akeel, a twenty-six-year-old Baghdad resident, on life in the new Iraq
Consistently compared with the work of Hunter S. Thompson and Michael Herr, The Freedom provides a fearless and unsanitized tour of the disastrous occupation of Iraq, in all its surreal and terrifying detail. Drawing on the best tradition of war reporting, here is a rare book that "embeds" with both sides—the U.S. military and the Iraqi resistance.
Acclaimed journalist Christian Parenti takes us on a high-speed ride along treacherous roads to the centers of the ongoing conflict in Fallujah, Ramadi, and Sadr City through the first year of the occupation. He introduces us to relatives waiting anxiously outside the holding fortress of Abu Ghraib and takes a night drive around Baghdad with the insurgents. He recounts the military's use of drugs and prostitutes, the imperial buffoonery of the Green Zone, and the religious ecstasy of the Shiites. And he allows us to witness, close-up and in riveting detail, the cataclysmic violence, rampant gangsterism, and quotidian heroism that is today's Iraq.
As predicted by the San Francisco Bay Guardian, when "historians of tomorrow start writing, they will doubtless have copies of The Freedom close at hand."
Customer Reviews:
Quality writing from a quality writer.......2006-08-09
This is the first book I've ever read by Christian Parenti.
It says on the back of my edition from the Las Vegas Mercury
'[Parenti] has an eye for the pefect image, a wonderful ear for dialogue, and a prose style that floats across the page'
This is superbly apposite. Christian Parenti does have a really arresting, muscular, lithe and subtle way with words.
He zooms onto an intensely personal detail in one paragraph and then zooms out into the much larger picture in the next. He does this beautifully though.
This writing seems like it could have dictated in a stream of consciousness, but my guess is that Parenti is a heavy self-editor. I don't think anyone in a rush will write
"It is as if the very landscape of America has been flooded with an odorless, anesthetic gas that prohibits analysis."
or
"Considering all these dynamics, it seems that failure is, in fact, America's only option. And when the full history of this bloody circus is written, people will look back slack-jawed at the scale and brazenness of the occupation's corruption and incompetence. History will record Haliburton's colossal greed; The Bush administration's reckless ideological delusions; Paul Bremer's capricious mismanagement; the venality and duplicity of Chalhabi, Allawi and the other disobedient, incompetent puppets. And this criminal farce will be visually linked to images of bombed mosques in Falluja, the burning Baghdad library with idle US troops watching, sexual torture and humiliation in Abu Ghraib, and the swollen skulls of children sick from radiation poisoning."
I will be definitely reading everything else he has written.
I meant to give it 5 stars, I don't know why I've only ended up with 4.
Perspective from The Freedom.......2006-05-29
This is an excellent read providing perspective from important and fresh angles. I found it incredibly well written prose with a great ear for dialogue and an honesty that comes through in each encounter with his subjects whether they are U.S. soldiers, Iraqi mothers or men engaged in the Iraqi resistence.
This book dimensionalizes the conflict so when I get the steady diet of network news I have a better sense of what is going on behind the headlines ( and the "paid for" positive media that the DOD is polluting the airwaves with); on the streets of cities and in the American encampments across Iraq.
Regardless of whether you supported this war from the outset -- your view of conflict will be more informed by this read.
Is this REALLY the truth?.......2006-01-06
Can you contain all that is Iraq in 211 little pages? No? Then you must leave something out. What did Parenti leave out?
It's clear what he left in: An interview with a leader of the Communist Party in Iraq, another interview with insurgent cell leaders, and several interviews with friends both Iraqi and American who vehemently disagree with some aspect of the war. Are we to expect these anti-war and anti-American (not the same) interviewees possess the entire Iraq experience?
That's all there is to Iraq?
The war dissenters in the book are described in detail, with heart and in a sympathetic style. The war advocates are patriotic, mono-syllabic dullards.
Is this accurate? Complete? Why not strike up a friendship with a "John Wayne," flag waving, all-American soldier and interview him in more than just a token fashion? There are plenty out there. Could it be that such a warrior has nothing in common with Parenti? There is something more here that CP is not telling the reader. Furthermore, he never claims to be writing an article. This is pure editorial. He even mentions the fact that his opinions have colored his writing in this book. Oh, he says it's the truth alright. It's the "truth" plus his opinion.
Let us not expect the plain and simple facts from a book like this. "The Freedom" is one man's opinion. Read it if you don't agree with the war. You'll find solace in a journalist's editorial writing who shares your opinion.
DON'T read it if you are searching for the truth about Iraq. You'll find opinion.
I gave it 5 stars because I got what I was looking for--a journalist's take on Iraq. I entered into it not expecting even handed reportage. I wanted to know what one person has to say on the war who's opinion is radically different from my own and who can effectively write.
Parenti expressed his opinion and gave me insight into one reporter's mind: Report the tragic. Report the struggle. Report the conflict. This is grist for the mill. Give the readers a story--a cliff hanger. Report the truth only when it supports the story.
One more note of caution. Remember: he is a reporter not a soldier. He is a writer, not a State Department nation builder, strategist, tactician, politician or warrior. He is an expert. . .on WRITING, not international affairs. If you keep that in mind you'll better see through to the truth.
Come on. You don't think Parenti is the last word on Iraq, do you?
Insightful First Hand Account of a Farce.......2005-11-21
Christian Parenti has been to Iraq 3 times. He gives a stark political overview backed with first hand knowledge. I must say his writing style is superb and me manages a sense of humor throughout. The war has been fought for obscene millitary contracts to the Bechtels and Halliburtons of the world. Also, for oil control. Interestingly, he posits that it is not for our use but to inhibit future powers such as China and India from controlling oil. If we control the areas where they purchase their oil, we can engage in diplomatic blackmail.
Parenti also outlines the plight of women in Iraq as they are subjected to "misery gangs" who rape and beat them, leaving them on the side of the roads. Many of these women are then killed by their relatives to preserve their honor.
He sits in on dubious press conferences in which millitary spokesman sidestep every question. He rides with the grunts and talks to the freedom fighters. On a few occasions, he is in the right place at the right time, witnessing an IED that takes out a convoy and a marine. This book really leaves you feeling horribly sorry for everyone involved, except for the contractors. This is gonzo journalism at its finest.
The Truth.......2005-10-22
What Parenti offers here is an articulate account of cause and effect. Mainstream media organizations adroitly postulate intellectualized accounts of cause, but fail miserably to explore, analyze and depict effect. This is the void that Parenti fills with his simmering account of the travails involved simply in surviving in Iraq. He reports the front line experiences of soldiers, `insurgents', citizens, NGOs and journalists; those unfortunates who make up the episode of madness that is the Iraq war.
Parenti avoids the pitfall of painting himself into the Bush-bashing corner. His is not an overtly political polemic (although he cannot on occasion resist the temptation to thrust his knife between the ribs of the corpulent political leadership gorging at the trough of the Iraq war), but is instead an honest account of what the decisions made a world away mean to the people left to live out these megalomaniacal fantasies.
The Freedom is cinematic in its expression; Parenti captures the palpitations of fear, the stench of total societal destruction and the grinding heat of the desert, and he serves up a cast of desperate, angry, terrified and bewildered characters. Parenti's vivid prose unquestionably entertains, but the success of The Freedom is in relating the thrilling but morbid account of what passes for life in Iraq to the audacious claims of `progress' made by Bush and his puppet-masters. Piety, greed and hubris are the cause, Parenti offers us the effect. The meaningless rhetoric of the grand architects who sweep their hands over maps of Arabia is translated into the taut prose of survival. Parenti is courageous, honest, rational and talented and this book should be read by all who value those qualities.
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