Imperial Life in the Emerald CityInside Iraq's Green Zone
- Narrated by
Ray Porter
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Audiobook Download Information
- Edition:
- Unabridged (Blackstone Audiobooks)
- Length:
- 10 hours, 19 minutes
- File Size:
- 284 MB (8 files)
- Published:
- January 2007
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Summary
The Washington Post’s former Baghdad bureau chief, Rajiv Chandrasekaran, takes us into the Green Zone, headquarters for the American occupation in Iraq. In this bubble separated from wartime realities, the task of reconstructing a devastated nation competes with the distractions of a Little America—a half-dozen bars, a disco, a shopping mall—much of it run by Halliburton. While qualified Americans willing to serve in Iraq are screened for their views on Roe v. Wade, the country is put into the hands of inexperienced twentysomethings chosen for their Republican Party loyalty. Ignoring what Iraqis say they want or need, the team pursues irrelevant neoconservative solutions and pie-in-the-sky policies instead of rebuilding looted buildings and restoring electricity production. Their almost comic initiatives anger the locals and fuel the insurgency.
Quotes from the Critics
"The book is an eye-opening tour of ineptitude, misdirection and the perils of democracy-building....Other recent books have assailed the military prosecution of the Iraq war, traced its partisan origins and exposed the dismal planning. Chandrasekaran's detail-rich reporting and firsthand, candid narrative is what sets his contribution apart and bolsters his withering assessment." - Newsday (Long Island, N.Y.)
"Chandrasekaran's portrait of blinkered idealism is even-handed, chronicling the disillusionment of conservatives who were sent to a war zone without the resources to achieve lasting change." - New Yorker
"Mr. Chandrasekaran...draws a vividly detailed portrait of the Green Zone and the Coalition Provisional Authority...that becomes a metaphor for the administration's larger failings in Iraq." - New York Times Book Review
"This is a clearly written, blessedly undidactic book. It should be read by anyone who wants to understand how things went so badly wrong in Iraq." - New York Times Book Review
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