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34 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Recommended., June 1, 2005
This review is from: How America Lost Iraq (Hardcover)
Aaron Glantz, a reporter for Pacifica Radio, has written a compelling first hand account of his experiences in Iraq between early 2003 and early 2005. This is new journalism at its best. Mr. Glaantz is very upfront about where he is coming from as a supporter of human rights for all, whether they be Americans, Sunnis, Shiites, Kurds, or Iraqi Christians. He is quite willing to acknowledge the atrocities of Saddam's regime as well as of the terrorists and U.S. forces. Living among the Iraqi people and sometimes mistaken for one by U.S. soldiers, he brings clarity to a complex situation and puts a human face on people under enormous pressure that you won't soon forget. Glaantz's honesty comes through in a way you never see in the mainstream media, whose reporters are often isolated from the day to day lives of Iraqis in their suites at the Palestine hotel. He is also quite willing to turn his eyes on himself, asking "How many people can you interview whose relatives have been killed before you start to crack--or worse, tune it all out?"
In addition to a strong narrative arc that describes how American liberators became occupiers became oppressors, the book is filled with details and conversations that make pieces of the puzzle that is Iraq fall into place. To pick one example, his discussion of kidnappings in Iraq brings up thought-provoking points that one rarely hears voiced. Glaantz notes an Associated Press report that "80 percent of the roughly 170 foreigners kidnapped in Iraq had been peacefully released. Overall, it seemed hostages directly involved in the occupation [this would include contractors working for the military] fared much worse than their civillian counterparts" (217). Details that should be reassuring turn out to be disturbing, such as Glaantz's comment that the soccer stadium converted into a mass grave in Fallujah "turned out to be a lot smaller than I imagined it" which necessitated the bodies being buried very close together, "and each mound has a small concrete slab as a headstone, the name of the person hand-scrawled with red paint. Sometimes there are more than one name" (273).
Although he gives you his own opinions (and identifies them as such), many of the book's most powerful moments come when he gives the voices of the Iraqis scope. To take one example, a simple conversation with a shopkeeper suggests a chillingly plausible reason for the number of suicide bombers: there are people willing to pay them, rumors suggesting one might get as much as $250,000. As the shopkeeper explains, "Of course some people will take money to explode themselves . . . That way their family and and their grandchildren will be able to live well in the future." While huge sums go to military contractors and to protect oil interests, little goes to help the locals. As the shopkeeper wistfully comments, "If some of the money went to unemployed Iraqi people . . . there would be fewer bombings" (119-20). The passage is shocking, not only because it critiques U.S. policy, but because it suggests that many of the "fanatics" may not be fanatics at all, but simply people who are trying to protect and provide for their families by victimizing the families of others. Can the noblest of ends justify the worst of means? It is a question that some Iraqis answer in the affirmative, but obviously many in the U.S. answer the same question in the same way. Ultimately, this cycle of violence underlies the whole book, and it applies to both Iraqi history as well as to U.S. actions in the Middle East.
Although the book is hardly a justification of the invasion of Iraq, the book is by no means an unrelenting attack on U.S. policy. Glaantz sometimes defends U.S. actions and critiques the anti-war Left; Glaantz also describes his struggle with his editors at Pacifica who want more sensational stories than Iraqi discontent with the lack of power, water, and proper sanitation. He refuses to believe many of the worst reports of the U.S. military's behavior, although he acknowledges that a number of them turn out to be true. One of the things that makes the book remarkably compelling, is that you can actually see the shift from denial to acceptance taking place in his narrative, a shift that parallels the Iraqis transition from hope, to disappointment, to outrage. Glaantz also makes unheard of efforts (at least for a journalist these days) to talk to multiple witnesses and check out their statements when this is possible. If he doesn't see things himself, he describes the aftermath in telling detail and interviews survivors. Ulimately the story Glaantz tells is a tragic one, a story in which a bad situation is dishonestly exploited by the powerful, opportunities to do good are squandered, and arrogance and poorly thought out policy make a situation increasingly spiral out of control.
Despite the complexity of some of the issues How America Lost Iraq raises, the book benefits from being a first hand account, and thanks to Glaantz's writing skills it has considerable narrative momentum. The book thus manages to be a fast read even as it is also remarkably thought-provoking. All in all this is an excellent book that focuses on an element of the Iraq war rarely covered in the media--the Iraqis themselves.
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13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The story the reporters have missed, June 10, 2005
This review is from: How America Lost Iraq (Hardcover)
Aaron Glantz has penned a treasure with How America Lost Iraq. A little over two years have passed since the American invasion of Iraq began, and conditions on the ground in Iraq are largely the same as or even worse than they were just after the invasion. This book explores why.
In his search for the answers, Glantz actually behaves as a real journalist. Unlike most Western reporters who file their stories without having real contact with the people about whom they are reporting, Glantz courageously ventures throughout Iraq, visits cities many reporters probably do not even know exist, and puts his finger on the pulse of Iraqi public opinion.
In light of the fact that Glantz is a reporter for Pacifica Radio, his frankness and objectivity were surprising. Many liberals will identify with Glantz's cynicism of the American military's tactics and intentions, but to my (and his) surprise, he confesses that his cynicism may have been partially baseless. The American military DID try to avoid civilian deaths by bombing only military installations. Furthermore, most Iraqis immediately after Saddam's fall welcomed the American military as liberators.
Where Glantz hits his stride, however, is his detailing of how the Iraqi gratitude transformed into contempt, how the U.S. truly did manage to "lose Iraq" through a brutal and counter-productive occupation. Readers cannot help but despair as they read account after account of U.S. forces digging themselves deeper into a quagmire through brutal suppression, collective punishment, and an assortment of other egregious practices. The violent Iraqi responses to these activities lead to more crack-downs, which in turn spur more Iraqi violence, creating a never-ending spiral of escalating brutality. The most important question Glantz raises is, why do so many in America see the occupation as necessary to quell violence when he has seen up close that it has done nothing but to incite violence? Our policies, Glantz implies, are difficult to comprehend in light of what is actually taking place on the ground. And he is right.
How America Lost Iraq is not remarkable only because of the depth of the research or only because of the clarity of Glantz's analysis, both which should place this book high on anybody's to-read list. Rather, it is Glantz's gift of storytelling which adds the spike to otherwise generic punch. The smoothness of his prose and the tightness of his narrative bring immediacy to the events he describes, compelling the reader to accompany Glantz and his translators on their dangerous travels. In the end, those travels lead to one place: the realization that the current occupation of Iraq is tragic. It has caused untold suffering for Iraqis who were looking forward to peaceful self-determination after decades of Saddam; it has led an American army of potential liberators to commit war crimes due to high-level mismanagement; and it raises serious questions about the level of awareness of Americans who remain silent while billions more of their tax dollars continue to be poured into a doomed operation.
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8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Highly Credible Account, July 7, 2005
This review is from: How America Lost Iraq (Hardcover)
Aaron Glantz, along with everyone else in their right mind, is obviously critical of the US presence in Iraq, however, his account is unique in several important respects. First of all, due to his courageous approach in working outside of areas secured by US forces, he offers unique insights into how this disaster continues to evolve. Secondly, his perspective is refreshingly credible; the reader can easily follow how and why he arrives at his conclusions. In most critical analyses of the Iraq invasion and occupation, the authors seem to have already made up their minds, and proceed to justify their conclusions. Unlike such hysterical screeds, Glantz's book is not only highly credible, but exceptionally well written.
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