Customer Reviews

Iraq and Back: Inside the War to Win the Peace

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Colonel Olson rose to the top rank of Air Force jet pilots by taking charge of her professional life. Like other hard-chargers, she won some, lost some. This book lays out the atmospherics of Baghdad during the first hectic and terrible days of the American occupation, working along side Jay Garner. Flashbacks explain how she was invited to be Garner's executive officer and the many things she did trying to turn chaos into triumph. The whole thing came apart when the President put Bremer in and pushed Garner out. The defining aspect of this book is when Olson lays out a few serious missteps that cost her advancement without compromise to her character. There's really no other book around that lays out the daunting challenges Garner had to overcome, once Baghdad was captured. Whereas Bremer kept his own counsel close to his chest, Garner's strong suit was concensus building. Unfortunately for him--and maybe for the rest of us, too--he wasn't in place long enough to make a dent. Olson too comes across as the woman for her times.

Kim Olson's memoir of ORHA, with the backstory of her own struggles in a man's military world, kept me enthralled by the sheer gumption of selfless men and woman who set out against odds. It is a wonder what Garner and his team, including Col. Olson, might have achieved, if only left alone to employ their experience, intelligence, and capture the moment. It wasn't to be, and Olson's account made this reader shake his head in dismay. I want my daughter to read this book as well. There are many lessons here for young women. My only quibble is with the author's purple prose, which somebody should have counseled Olson against. With her story to tell, she did not need to overwrite.

Kim Olson presents an excellent portrait of life in post-invasion Iraq. Her unique insider viewpoint humanizes the gigantic machine that is the military. Jay Garner's little group earnestly tried to create the infrastructure to fulfill a vague and poorly defined White House mission with little help and even less direction. The mission was nearly guaranteed to be a failure, and the toll it took on Kim was enormous. Her description of her background of 20+ years of military service and success, and her final failure to advance because of political infighting and mistakes and the grudges and discrimination of her superiors is a tale for all women serving in today's military. A moving story of war, the machine that makes it, and its human face is a fascinating read.

I enjoyed the subject matter of this book. A story about Iraq, and our military was especially interesting since it was the perspective from a woman. I think it gave accurant account of the events as seen & experienced by Mrs Olsen, but also dealt into the emotions of those there - both foreign and those born there. I also liked that it showed the strengths of a woman and how difficult that can be, sometimes. My only complaint is you could tell this was Olsen's 1st attempt at writting. Not a bad attempt mind you. It just didn't flow as well as it could have. BUT then again, she is a military person, not a writter. I would much rather have the events told by one there - even if not expertly written, than to have a top writter try to convey what was going on. Bravo Kim Olsen!

I had the great good fortune to attend a Veterans Day lecture by Colonel Kim Olson at the University of Texas at Dallas. Afterwards, I was invited to meet her. As if hearing Colonel Olson speak was not exciting enough, talking to her in person was electrifying. What a presence!

From the moment I began reading Iraq and Back, I was captivated. I learned in depth about some of the topics she touched on in her speech--and more. Colonel Olson doesn't mince words, she just tells the story. And when you read her words it's like having a conversation with a friend: for example, when she talks about being prepared to go without many luxuries and necessities, but not chocolate. Also, because the book is written from a woman's perspective, we get a sense of the real people of Iraq--the mothers, the children, the shopkeepers, everyday folks.

Colonel Olson's background was in teaching, but her stepfather suggested that she might make a fine military officer. After she joined the Air Force, she found that she desperately wanted to be a jet pilot. She had to compartmentalize her life and emotions. She loves her children, but she also loved to fly--the same kind of conflict between family and work that many women face. Somehow, Kim Olson manages to bridge the apparent contradiction between being an Air Force colonel and mother of 12 and 15 year olds. Her call sign is Jetmom.

When Olson was asked to be part of a team to "rebuild Iraq" as the executive officer to retired General Jay M. Garner (director of the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance), she was conflicted. She had been an Air Force pilot, above the battle and not involved in the ground war. In the book's foreword, General Garner had this to say about Olson: "She is a strong, articulate, intellectual pioneer with boundless energy--an exemplary officer and marvelous human being who has served and still serves as a role model and mentor to younger women. She was instrumental in forming a staff, developing plans, securing funds, producing a budget, arranging travel, coordinating meetings with diplomats, clerics, politicians, military commanders, and Iraqi leaders--Sunni, Shia, and Kurd. She would be the first person I would pick for my team."

Before she left on this assignment, she was advised by a historian to take composition books with her to record the daily events, a living document that would become the basis for this memoir. I smiled when she told of bossing men around and treating them like children. I creied when she wrote about leaving her husband and children and finding her kids stuffed animals hidden in her bag when she arrived in Iraq with a note to "Hug them when you miss us." I felt good when she stood over an Iraqi who told her she must cover her head and she replied: "I am not in a mosque and I am not a Muslim and military women do not cover." I felt sad when Olson came across an Iraqi woman who was holding the body bag of her child and she just put her arms around her and said "I'm so sorry." She knew that grief was a universal language.

Colonel Olson realized that rebuilding a society requires its entire people, both men and women. Everyone needs to feel they have a voice and can make a difference. On a personal level, she knew this concept all to well. The slow integration of women into the military mirrors that of other predominantly male professions. She feels that women in nontraditional careers should start by unlocking the doors of opportunity and ally themselves with enlightened men who have a strong sense of self and are not threatened by powerful women. She was fortunate to find some good men that helped to further her career.

When Olson won an Exceptional Leadership Award she gave a short but impassioned speech at the Women's Memorial in Washington, DC. "As I look out at this audience tonight, I am once again reminded that it is because of women like you that I get to fly jets, I get to command troops, and I get to wear this military uniform and defend my country. So tonight, it is I who thank you." She had finally balanced work, family, and community and knew that a nurturing style of leadership worked.

I highly recommend this book, not only because it's written by a zealous woman, but because it offers a compelling insight into what the United States faced and is still facing in Iraq.

by Doris Anne Roop-Benner
for Story Circle Book Reviews
www.storycirclebookreviewsorg
reviewing books by, for, and about women

I had the pleasure of being in a writing class with Kim Olson as she worked on this book. The raw writing was very entertaining and interesting, including the humorous incident of a wave at a passing local as she got caught in mid-stream during a pit-stop in an open field. Then there was the disaster of her civilian boss suggesting to the Air Force Chief of Staff that she should be promoted and where she should be assigned--derailing her career at its apex.

Some reviewers fault her criticism of the Bush administration officials and others; I wish there was more of it. At the same time, knowing what she intended to write and what I see in the book, I think some miss the point in thinking this book is primarily about her experience in Iraq or the relative merits of ORHA versus CPA. I don't believe it is. If it were, she could have said much more about the lack of adequate resources for reconstructing Iraq. She could have assessed whether the way we went about fighting the war made sense. But she had only a brief relationship with Iraq and had to do the best job given the resources and knowledge available at the time. That being said, I see the book using Iraq as an anchor around which the bigger boat floats.

I see this book as being about the issue of Iraq reconstruction but about much more. About the harsh challenges, the rampant sexism, that women have faced in advancing in the military--in this case the Air Force, especially those who chose to fly and to command men. About the conflicts between roles as a mother and an officer that she encountered. About the interesting ways that a woman may be better at resolving some issues than men. It is about how she overcame all the impediments that were put in her way and became an outstanding officr in the Air Force. It also reveals the good old boy club is far from dead--shooting her down in the end despite her record. It is worthwhile reading to get a different perspective on all these issues and more.

Kim Olson is a one of a kind woman. She shares her experience in the military with strength and with conviction about her service...and still shows her humility and intelligence in the face of adverse situations.

If you want to get a real view of the dedication and hard work of our military through an articulate and incredible voice, this is the book for you. She doesn't sugar coat the situation of war, nor does she make excuses for her decisions. She gives every single American a reason to stand up and be proud.

We couldn't put the book down. It is beautifully written...but that's not the essence. It is an honest account by an honest woman.

Jane and Robert Handly

This book is an amazing first hand account of what it was like for Olson, her team and probably many soldiers as well in the war in Iraq. It is touching on a human level as you encounter Olson's struggles as a veteran female pilot in the Air Force, and how she balances her career as well as being a mother and wife in a assignment that tests her will on all accounts. Each chapter is gripping with suspense as you never know what her and her team will encounter as you turn each page. Honesty, humility and humor are threaded throughout the pages that left me with a better understanding of the risks of our freedom, proud to be an American, and the feeling I just witnessed first hand an incredible journey that left me entertained and at the same time, with a lump in my throat. Rebecca D. Turner, author of Tattoo

General Garner, a highly respected leader both within Iraq and the U.S., was asked to leave his civilian job to lead postwar efforts in Iraq. He accepted the challenge, only to quickly be replaced by Ambassador Bremer who immediately made the situation vastly worse. Kim Olson was his Executive Officer - in an excellent position to report key details. Little has been reported to-date on why Garner "failed" and was replaced.

I eagerly picked up "Iraq and Back," looking forward to learning what happened. Unfortunately, the book is almost entirely a short history of Olson's life as a female officer in the Air Force (she is WAY too full of herself), and the remaining material offers no explanations of Garner's frustrations.

That said, it is hard to not be sympathetic to Olson's explanation of how her career crashed, and the difficulties of even paying their African security force.

For a month after Baghdad's fall, Gen. Jay Garner's Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance (ORHA) led Iraq. Because of length of tenure and also because his successor, Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) administrator L. Paul Bremer, cultivated the press which Garner eschewed, ORHA has become little more than a footnote in many accounts. Olson, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel, sheds light on this period with Iraq and Back, an account of her time as Garner's executive officer.

Olson's prose is straightforward and unpretentious. As she narrates events, her narrative illustrates ORHA's failure to coalesce. Uniformed military officers disliked civilian counterparts, and the State Department mistrusted anyone who did not hail from the Foreign Service. Olson, like many executive officers, makes instant judgments and boils personalities down into the briefest of descriptions. She noted how Larry DiRita, an aide to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, spent hours on the phone reporting back to his boss but never executed an order for Garner. She had little patience for then-National Security Council official (and, later, ambassador to Baghdad) Zalmay Khalilzad, whom she suggests was an arrogant showboat unconcerned with those around him. State Department official Sherri Kraham, who later married Patriotic Union of Kurdistan leader Jalal Talabani's son, she depicts as fragile, sobbing with fear at the prospect of a helicopter flight.

As Garner's chief aide, Olson was attuned to her boss. She relates his impatience at ORHA's slow deployment to Iraq, at the problems surrounding the establishment of ORHA's palace headquarters, and Garner's subsequent scramble to pay Iraqi pensions. Without such basic equipment as telephones, the hurdles ORHA faced in completing its mission were huge.

However, ORHA's difficulties were not just an absence of equipment but also a lack of guidance. Olson says ORHA received no instructions about Iraqi governance from the White House, State Department, or the Defense Department. While this should lay to rest the canard that the Pentagon sought to impose Iraqi National Congress leader Ahmad Chalabi on Iraq, it does raise questions about Condoleezza Rice. Wasn't it the job of the national security advisor to oversee policy coordination and ensure that no vacuum developed? Because there had been interagency agreement on some policies, had Garner ignored these; did the National Security Council or Pentagon fail to transmit them; or had staff members under Olson simply disregarded them? Regardless, in the absence of instructions on his desk, Garner freelanced, inviting seven prominent Iraqi expatriate leaders into a council. Olson appears unaware that these were the Iraqi leaders chosen by the Iraqi expatriate community after years of negotiation and conferences.

Iraq and Back ends as abruptly as did Garner's tenure. Bremer--the "arrogant jerk" in Olson's words--arrived and casts ORHA aside. He dismisses Garner's fledgling government and orders the sweeping de-Baathification measures Garner had resisted.

While any account of ORHA fills a void, Olson's falls short. Her loyalty to Garner prevents her from asking tough questions about his tenure. How did he make decisions? Why did he publicly embrace high-level Baathists such as Saad al-Janabi, a former aid to Saddam Hussein's sons? Why did he start soliciting political advice from former CIA officials who had moved to Baghdad to form businesses with former Baathist contacts? How did Garner foresee his Iraqi leadership council enforcing decisions down to the municipality? And what interactions did Garner have with U.S. Central Command and U.S. military leaders still operating in Iraq? Nevertheless, Iraq and Back is a good first step at filling in the missing piece of Iraq' post-war narrative.

Michael Rubin
Middle East Quarterly
Summer 2007