One Woman's Army: The Commanding General of Abu Ghraib Tells Her Story [Hardcover]

Janis Karpinski (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 12, 2005

In an ouspoken memoir that is sure to generate controversy, General Janis Karpinski tells the real story of the tragic and shameful events of 2004 from her first-hand experience.

Karpinski had a long, distinguished career in the military: she received a Bronze Star for her service in the Gulf War, and most recently, served as the Commander of the Military Police Brigade and was the first and only female General Officer commanding troops in a combat zone in Iraq. And although she had no training in handling criminal prisoners, she was selected to run Abu Ghraib.

In One Woman's Army, Karpinski takes us inside the prison walls and describes unflinchingly what it was like to interact with the Iraqi prisoners, the corruption within the armed forces and the accompanying private firms, and her meeting with Saddam Hussein, who refused to believe that a woman could be in charge. She talks about what life is really like for women in the armed forces and the tremendous obstacles she has faced.

Co-written with Newsweek correspondent Steven Strasser, she forcefully argues that the bulk of the blame for the Abu Ghraib scandal goes to the very top of the chain of command -- to Lieutenant General Sanchez; Ambassador Bremer; Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld -- and tells why she has been made a scapegoat. Hers is a story of military leaders run amok, and a moving portrait of a woman who spent her life defying the odds in pursuit of her dream.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The charge to find intelligence for use against terrorists with no clear rules as to how to do it led inevitably to abuses at Abu Ghraib, asserts Karpinski, the commanding general in charge of military police at the prison made infamous by Saddam Hussein and even more so by American troops. In a bid not to be defined by Abu Ghraib, Karpinski tells the story of her life in the military leading to her command of the Iraqi prison, including her stint with the reserves and her deployment to the first Gulf War, where she earned a Bronze Star. When she was assigned to oversee MPs at Abu Ghraib, Karpinski found herself doubly resented, as a reservist and as a woman. She details the conflicts with military culture and an old-boy network, including Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. She describes little support from the regular army and no clear chain of command as military intelligence stepped up harsh treatment of prisoners in search of "actionable intelligence." Karpinski accepts her own shortcomings but maintains that she was made a scapegoat in the shameful events for which, other than herself, only lower-level servicemen have been punished. This is a completely fascinating look at a troubling event from the perspective of a woman who has been on the frontline. REVWR
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"A completely fascinating look at a troubling event from the perspective of a woman who has been on the frontline." -- Booklist

"Sobering reading for all women warriors." -- The Evening Standard --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 265 pages
• Publisher: Miramax (October 12, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1401352472
• ISBN-13: 978-1401352479
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 6.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,347,875 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

64 of 80 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Far more honesty than you can get from the White House!, October 13, 2005

By 

B. Horrigan (MA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: One Woman's Army: The Commanding General of Abu Ghraib Tells Her Story (Hardcover)

Karpinski has a lot of guts to tell it as it was in Iraq. She is forthright about her own shortcomings but paints a detailed and vivid picture of the situation on the ground after the American invasion. The incompetence and cockiness of the Bush administration is laid bare--by someone who should have been one of their biggest supporters. The sexist culture of the military at every level is the second line of this story, but Karpinski never whines--and, until she was stabbed in the back by her own people, she never let her stop going after the career she wanted. A must read, if you want a balanced view.

84 of 106 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bombshell - I now understand it all, October 25, 2005

By 

Alexander E. Paulsen "AlexP" (Jacksonville, Fl United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: One Woman's Army: The Commanding General of Abu Ghraib Tells Her Story (Hardcover)

You probably won't see this book on Fox News but this book is explosive. You'll have to stop every few pages and to absorb it all.

From news reports I initially thought that General Karpinski had to be the incompetent military officer in history for letting all that go on in the prison and claims to know nothing about it. But something just didn't feel right about the whole thing. Missing pieces of the puzzle made the whole thing stink to high heaven.

Now get the real story. Make no mistake - this IS the real story.

General Karpinski was not permitted by her boss to even enter the area of the prison where the torture took place. She even was ordered not to release prisoners proven to be innocent. When she tried to break the whole wide open she was sacrified. Thay is only the tip of the iceberg of this story.

Karpinski was thrown to wolves as a scapegoat while the real criminals patted themselves on the back.

This is a story of a government out of control. Professional military officers were shut out and not allowed to do their jobs under the law.

The story of Abu Ghraib told by General Karpinski is amazing and credible. She tells of mercenaries used by military intelligence, and instances where prison guards fired by departments of corrections for brutality were recruited for use in Iraq.

You will read this with your jaw dropped. I couldn't believe what I was reading. But the information checks out. The general is very credible and her story does shed new light on elements of this story that never made any sense to me. Now it is all clear. It finally makes sense and the missing pieces to the puzzle are finally all together.

This is a story of a cancer in the US hierarchy. This book will blow your mind. Karpinski exposes the lies. All good patriotic Americans need to read this book.

The story is not a new one, it's actually familiar. It has happened before. After you read this book you'll know what I'm talking about.

This book needs to get out. Everyone needs to read this story of corruption, lying and Rove's "reality". People belong in prison over this and I am not talking about Karpinski.

I would say that this is the most important book of the year without doubt. Read the real story, not the Fox News propaganda written by Bush's Ministry of Truth.

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Honorable Career, Blighted by Betrayal, November 17, 2005

By 

Claudia M. Richmann (Lawrenceville, GA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: One Woman's Army: The Commanding General of Abu Ghraib Tells Her Story (Hardcover)

Colonel Karpinski earned the highest raiting for her autobiography because it spurred me to write to my congressman, senators, the President...and this review. Before the revelations in this book I had visions of Karpinski sitting back, watching her MPs play "pick up sticks" with their piles of prisoners. Now I realize she truly had no knowledge of abuse and understand how this ignorance was possible. I did not know her mission in Iraq was to construct from scratch and run 17 prisons. That Iraq's prison system had been destroyed by Saddam and she had to make these prisons available not only to our POWs, (later "detainees,") but also for the common Iraqi criminal element. The 800th MP Brigade, a patchwork quilt of various Reserve Companies, was woefully understaffed and under supplied; and as Reservists rather than regular Army, their needs were not a priority. As units were sent home they were not replaced, so Karpinski was faced with the challenge of guarding an ever burgeoning prison population with fewer and fewer troops. She had to play chess with the companies guarding her various prisons and move them around to procure maximum efficiency with minimum coverage. At Abu Ghraib there was the additional challenge of operating in a combat zone under almost daily motar attacks with threats of suicide bombings and ground assaults without the backing nor protection of combat troops. This was how the untrained soldiers from the 372nd MP Co came to Abu Ghraib and unbeknownst to Karpinski were pressed by civilian interrogators into "softening up" prisoners before interrogations. The MPs' job is to transport, care for and guard prisoners, not interrogate; but after Rumsfeld's order to extract "actionable intelligence," incredible pressure was exerted to obtain information, and the table was set for disaster. Ironically, the Army is not angry about the abusive interrogation techniques taught by Maj Gen Miller from Guantanamo Bay and used at Abu Ghraib, but that the MPs were foolish enough to share the pictures. Before those photos became public, Karpinski wanted to go to the Arabic and Western press to expose the abuse, apologize and start investigations, but was silenced by her superiors. They were busy covering their own asses and setting up Karpinski as the scapgoat. It is infuriating that now they are all blithely continuing their careers, most of them with promotions.

One reason Karpinski wrote this book was to point out her career should not be defined by Abu Ghraib. Her rise from school teacher to General is a more satisfying story than her fall. Her struggles to fit into our macho military yet keep her femininity, her decisions to join the military police and also earn a set of parachute wings in jump school, her experiences in the Middle East including being awarded a Bronze Star in the 1st Iraqi war and helping the United Arab Emirates train and integrate women into their military...these are some of the milestones that should define a proud and productive career. Her move from the Army to the Reserves and the subsequent respect she developed for these soldiers and those of the National Guard, despite their 2nd class status in the military is fascinating, as well as stories of the prejudice and machismo she endured. One weakness of the book: I wish she had given more detail about her marriage to the incredibly supportive George who joined the special forces when Karpinski joined the Army, lured by the married couple program of joint military careers. Of course they were never stationed in the same place at the same time so the pressures on the marriage must have been huge, but they persevered and have been married over 30 years.

Karpinski states that in the aftermath of the Abu Ghraib scandal, one of her greatest disappointments was how docilely the public and media accepted the administration's spin that the abuse was solely her fault perpetrated by 7 "bad apple" soldiers, despite the evidence of one photo clearly showing 16 pairs of boots surrounding the pyramid of naked men. Where was the outrage and the demands for an in-depth investigation? I was surprised by the compassion Karpinski expressed towards the notorious Lynndie England, noting her immaturity and desperate need for acceptence made her ripe for manipulation, thus condemning her to forever being the poster child for the atrocities at Abu Gharib. In any case, Karpinski conducted herself with grace, courage and class under the most horrific circumstances. She accepts responsibility, unlike her superiors or our civilian leaders, and she even recounts how she would have done things differently. I admire this woman, and if my daughter or my sons grow up to be like her, I would be extremely proud.