Customer Reviews

Operation Hotel California: The Clandestine War Inside Iraq

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

OPERATION HOTEL CALIFORNIA is a unique and riveting book about war. The reviews here run hot and cold, and that's to be expected -- this is a war book like few others.

Mike Tucker and his interview subject, the US counter-terrorist soldier Charles Faddis, combine their voices in counterpoint here. Tucker frames and story in both historic and mythic terms, while Faddis provides direct commentary on what happened when he and his team were ordered to enter Iraq in mid-2002 before the US invasion. This fugue of voice and view does not pretend to be the final word on US Iraq policy or on the events that preceded the US invasion, but it provides essential insight in two areas: (1) the egregious lack of coordination between the Bush administration and its own soldiers and allies, and (2) the way counter-terrorist teams operate and think in real time and real situations.

Faddis's accounts of action on the ground mix heroism, frustration and wit. I love the account of his team playing "Grand Theft Auto" and watching the film "Sideways" in-country, but I also love the explanations of how the team managed to take out rail lines essential to the Iraqi army in coordination with the Kurds. Faddis does not skimp on expressing his frustration: with inaccuracies in Bob Woodward's recent book, with the unwillingness of Bush administration figures to listen to the military, with failures of nerve and intelligence generally in how the administration failed to trust its own officers and troops.

Tucker's commentary -- and his policy recommendations in the book's epilogue -- strongly credits the Kurds with being the best allies of he US in the region. Tucker also endorses a series of policies going forward from the present (ending the Iraq War, fighting in Afghanistan, moving on global warming, reconstituting the OSS, allying with China and India in the global war on Islamic extremism). You may or may not agree with these notions -- or with the two authors' affection for single-malt scotch and music -- but they come out of a factual narrative about the beginning of the Iraq War that needs to be absorbed by people who are thinking about how to succeed in this critical military effort.

OHC reads quickly and sheds a wholly new light on the recent actions in the Middle East. Anyone interested in the topic should welcome these two unique views.

First of all I'd like to say the book was interesting. However, I was disappointed in that it is mostly written like a transcript from Mike Tucker's interviews with Mr. Faddis. There's alot of repetitiveness in what Mr. Faddis says and frankly, he comes across as a hot-headed, teenage Lee Marvin character. Makes one wonder if his personality affects his credibility and trustworthiness. I would not pay full price for this book but if you can borrow it from someone, sign it out from a library, or get real cheap, then go ahead and read it. I hope a better organized and written account comes out on this topic in the near future.

I wish I had read the reviews here before I bought this book. A few pages into the book, I began to notice the word and idea repetition. Annoyed, I continued on, hoping that things would smooth out and the real story would begin. Unfortunately, it only got worse and by the time I got through the first chapter, I could take no more. Like another reviewer noted, I'll be selling my copy to a used book store. This book should have been edited by a competent editor before it was published. It was not and now I feel taken for $17.

A testament to the remarkable skills and patriotism of the CIA team in Iraq prior to the war. The accomplishments of this team are only overshadowed by what could have been if not for the ignorance and incompetence of so many others involved in the Iraq conflict. A very interesting story and I highly recommend the book just for that reason. The reason I did not rate it at 5 stars is that writing is pretty dry and the author relies too much on long quotes from Charles Faddis, an extremely capable CIO operative (now retired).

This book has much to offer with some limitations. The book makes some claims that you won't see anywhere else. If true these claims back up President Bush's speeches justifying the Iraq War. No one else has done that outside of the political supporters.

First, a little about the book. The book is about the CIA station chief in Northern Iraq, before the start of the war. That adds a little new twist to the story of Iraq. There has been some rumors about CIA operations before March of 03. This book chronicles that story.

The book isn't written all that well. It is in places nothing but the transcript of an interview of the station chief. The author even describes the background information of the interview place like what the waitress was at the coffee shop in Washington DC. That is the bad part of the book. However if a person focuses on the content you will enjoy the book.

The story sounds like a movie as you get into it. It is an exciting story to read about how they got into Iraq, how they set up, what they did in country, their complications and all that. It is also interesting to hear through this guy's perspective about went wrong. He cites a couple of cases where Washington had no perspective on reality. They viewed things in Iraq like a staff game they played in the Pentagon war room. One example of this is how they ordered the CIA crew to get ready to receive several airplanes load of weapons in Iraq for the Kurds. They ordered the CIA on site crew to light up a runway, get trucks and forklifts for unloading a plan ready. I found such requests behind lines from headquarters very funny, almost like something from Monty Python. Another example is where they sent in a DoD team to check things out but each team, the DoD team and the CIA team not to talk to each other behind enemy lines. Other books say the same thing about the Washington way of war. He also cites how the White House was so in love with Chalabi so much they wouldn't let the facts upset that idea. That prevented them taking up other opportunities that might have ended the war successfully.

The author has a couple of really huge things. These things are revolutionary if true. To my knowledge he is the only author who supports two of President Bushes main reasons for the war. He cites that he knew of a Al Qaeda base inside of Iraq. He not only knew of the base through collected intelligence but personally saw the base. If that is true it backs up Bushes claim that Sadam was in bed with Ben Laden. No one else has said that fact. The author also mentions that he saw nuclear weapons production parts outside of a plant in Mosul Iraq at the end of the invasion of Iraq in 03. Again this book is the only place outside of Bush worshipers where that claim is stated.

However the author has some critical things to say about Bush. He stated that the infighting Bush allowed between the CIA and DoD under Rumsfeld screwed up the surrender of the Iraqi Army in Northern Iraq. Those soldiers went straight into the resistance when Sadam's government collapsed. The City of Mosul remains hot even today.

I think anyone would enjoy this book. It is like you get a first hand peak behind the "secret" door of the government. This book would make a GREAT movie.

Disappointing. Don't waste your money on this one. Written mostly as verbatim interview in a bar room setting. Comes across as a know-it-all with a lot a pent-up testosterone and a bar room swagger. And he wonders why he did not instill confidence from his superiors. Blames the lack of success in Iraq on his superiors and the White House.

His experiences could make an interesting read. . . but this is not it. He spends more time and energy castigating blaming others for what went wrong than telling his own story.

The amount of actual information given in this book is amazing. The book should be "required reading" for anyone with any interest in world affairs and the war in Iraq. Although it was fascinating to hear the story as told by Charles (Sam) Faddis, it was also gut-wrenching and disturbing to know the truth of what went/goes on. As someone who sometimes found myself defending what Bush and his "people" were doing regarding Iraq, I now have had my eyes opened to the reality of the situation. It is disturbing how poorly the administration and past administrations handled it. This continuing war did not have to be; Operation Hotel California could and should have been a total success. After reading this book, I searched online - and found and listened to a couple of public radio interviews with Charles Faddis. The inteviews and the book were informative, fascinating. Again ... book should be required reading.

To be honest, this is the first "military book" I've ever read. Other then a few Tom Clancy novels, I tend to (for better or worse) avoid most of this genre.
After hearing an interview with co-author Charles Faddis on APM's The Diane Rehm Show in October, I preordered this book and sat down with it the day it came out.
Crunching through the 200 pages in an afternoon, I can say that this is an exhilarating read. More so, it provides an essential perspective to modern US foreign military that all American should be aware of. I'm not an expert enough to say if this book is definitive, but it is hard to imagine anything else being this gripping and informative. Do yourself a favor and pick this up ASAP!

There are now books about the bad intelligence, the botched occupation and almost any aspect of the Iraq war and its aftermath. Now we have a narrative about the outrageous lack of administrative support for the CIA operatives who entered Iraq prior to the invasion. Was there ANY part of this war that was well managed?

The information they sent back was fully ignored. Their alliances were disrespected. Their invasion support operations were both ignored and undermined. This group would have been better off with no support from DC rather than with the dysfunctional support they received. It would all be laughable if so many lives had not been lost.

Everything from Washington from President Bush to his appointees was off. The utter folly of relying on Chalabi is an outrage all its own besides so many others (Bremer's de-Baathifation for one). I wonder how many besides the CIA on the ground had warned the tin-eared neo-cons about him.

Headquarters tells Sam... was it 8 times?... to be ready for supplies arriving over Turkish air space and gives him orders on striking railroad tracks, again, laughable except that following such nonsense is life-threatening.

Lt.Col. Waltemeyer is portrayed as the perfect jerk from central casting who arrives with full confidence of knowledge he doesn't have. He ignores all work that has gone on before him and not only marginalizes the people who know the terrain and the players, he officially isolates them so that no one can benefit from their work.

We don't know that Mosul would have been a smooth surrender as Faddis/Sam says, had Waltemeyer followed practical advice. It certainly looks like Waltemeyer's goal was to make Rumsfeld look good at the expense of using the intelligence gathered by this team. Of further of interest about Mosul, why was there no follow up on what might have been discovered? Faddis seems to have found some WMDs... could this be true?

The book ends with the author's return from the chaos of Iraq (Bremer has just fired the army) to DC where the support people, the types who "knew" the Turks would grant air space, etc., were in a state of "Mission Accomplished" celebration.

Some reviewers object to the prose. Do they really want this genuine voice to be tempered by a ghost writer? Faddis is refreshingly upfront on what he did, what he saw and what he feels. The Epilogue has a lot of common sense policy recommendations.

I highly recommend this book.

I suffered through every page of this book, trying to separate the wheat from the chaff. There were nuggets of interesting information, but, and I say this as someone who never took any of my English classes seriously, the people responsible for ensuring high-quality editing at Lyons Press should be taken out and beaten to a pulp. Many parts of this book reminded me of being in a conversation with a drunk, who repeats himself over and again, and likes to impress you with what he has to say. There are other literary devices that the authors use repeatedly that become comical in their employment (the description of the scenes in which the stories are retold, for instance.)

As a military officer, I can empathize with the obstacles he and his team faced in accomplishing the mission, but his assessment of the reasons for such obstacles is tainted by his blatant hatred of all things associated with President G.W. Bush. Even if there is some validity to certain points he makes, the over-the-top ranting calls into question the credibility of his perspective. Yes, I'm sure that there were personal agendas involved in the conduct in the war, and anyone who has ever been in that position knows that you almost never have all the resources you want nor do things usually break your way.

As a student and teacher of history, this book is of some use, hence my bumping my review up to two. The accounts of operating in Northern Iraq are interesting an a different perspective from what is offered in more popular accounts of the war like "Generation Kill." Despite the incessant complaining, the book is worth your time. The "story" 186 pages, but it's really not that long, when you take into account the wide margins and bouts of repetition.

While the author offers up solutions for a successful end to the War on Terrorism, these also are suspect when taken in total. End global warming and appoint Al Gore a weather czar? Give me a break!

I also echo the sentiments of others here who have offered less-than-stellar reviews which I have not specifically mentioned here.