The Occupation: War and Resistance in Iraq [Hardcover]

Patrick Cockburn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 17, 2006

A profound and personal journey to the heart of a shattered nation.

National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist 2006.

In March 2003, Patrick Cockburn secretly crossed the Tigris river from Syria into Iraq just before the US/British invasion, and has covered the war ever since. In The Occupation, he provides a vivid and disturbing picture of a country in turmoil, and the dangers and privations endured by its people.

The Occupation explores the mosaic of communities in Iraq, The US and Britain's failure to understand they country they were invading and how this led to fatal mistakes. Cockburn, who has been visiting Iraq since 1978, describes the disintegration of the country under the occupation. Travelling throughout Iraq, from the Kurdish north, to Baghdad, Falluja and Basra, he records the response of the country's population – Shia and Sunni, Arab and Kurd – to the invasion, the growth of the resistance and its transformation into a full-scale uprising. He explains why deepening religious and ethnic divisions drove the country towards civil war.

Above all, Cockburn traces how the occupation's failure led to the collapse of the country, and the high price paid by the Iraqis. He charts the impact of savage sectarian killings, rampant corruption and economic chaos on everyday life: from the near destruction of Baghdad's al-Mutanabi book market to the failure to supply electricity, water and, ironically, fuel to Iraq's population.

The Occupation is a compelling portrait of a ravaged country, and the appalling consequences of imperial arrogance.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Cockburn's eye for the telling detail lifts The Occupation above the usual journalist's account of the Iraq war.” (New York Times )

“Cockburn's account of the evolving conflict ... is informed by his keen personal observations and understanding of the complexities and horrors of daily life in Iraq.” (Library Journal )

“Of the raft of books about the calamitous mismanagement of the intervention in Iraq, The Occupation is probably the most readable and certainly the only one that—even if only in the driest possible way—manages to be amusing.” (Christopher Hitchens - Slate )

“Required reading ... a masterpiece of journalism.” (A N Wilson - Evening Standard )

“Cockburn will be read when the rest of us are long forgotten.” (The Times )

About the Author

Patrick Cockburn, Middle East correspondent of Independent, has been visiting Iraq since 1978. He was awarded the 2005 Martha Gellhorn prize for war reporting. He is the author of The Broken Boy, a memoir, and, with Andrew Cockburn, Out of the Ashes: The Resurrection of Saddam Hussein.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 229 pages
• Publisher: Verso (October 17, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1844671003
• ISBN-13: 978-1844671007
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,329,495 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential for understanding the Iraq war., December 10, 2006

By 

Wayne Rossi (Mount Holly, NJ United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Occupation: War and Resistance in Iraq (Hardcover)

Patrick Cockburn was deeply familiar with Iraq for twenty-five years before the US invasion and occupation, and his coverage of the first three years of the war is perhaps the most informed and passionate reporting to come out of Iraq. The Occupation combines a journalistic immediacy with a long view of the Iraq War and its place in US history, and Cockburn lays out the case that the current disaster was not just a matter of bad luck or bad planning, but should have been obvious before the war began.

There is a very human sensibility to the book, as Cockburn made every effort in his time in Iraq to get to know and talk to ordinary Iraqis as well as major figures. He is constantly able to provide an immediate and compelling illustration of the large-scale events going on, and his book manages to be both personal account and broad history.

The picture Cockburn paints is not one friendly to the US or British governments; he shows that the occupation was handled without even a modicum of expertise in the region among military or civilian leadership, especially the Coalition Provisional Authority. He shows how through a series of miscalculations, poor communication and outright blunders, the occupying army has managed to turn the bulk of Iraqis against it, and how all the large set-piece battles and elections only deepened the resistance and the growing civil war. He also shows that the unrealistic Pollyannaish view that the US wanted to paint of Iraq in 2003-2004 actually exacerbated the situation, primarily because it was actually believed by some commanders.

There is no "solution" for the US to win in Iraq in The Occupation, because Cockburn makes it clear that winning is simply impossible. Although it never says as much, the book's straightforward account is a compelling case for withdrawal. It should be read by anyone who wants to understand what the forces of the Iraq War are, or what its human face looks like.

27 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars dense and compact, November 2, 2006

By 

arzewski (pittsburgh, pa United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Occupation: War and Resistance in Iraq (Hardcover)

Of the twenty or so books that are coming out every season now on the experiences in Iraq, this one stands out: it is dense, compact, to the point, no fluff, very little dialog. In 213 pages, felt I learned more about it than those 800 page bricks that are not in the New Books section of your neighborhood pub library. Warning to hollywood moviemakers: there are no heroes in this book, so don't look in it for a possible film adaptation.

31 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent survey of a disaster, January 5, 2007

By 

William Podmore (London United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Occupation: War and Resistance in Iraq (Hardcover)

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.