Customer Reviews

Saving Babylon: The Heart of an Army Interrogator in Iraq

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A truly motivational presentation by one who experienced the rigors and the challenges of military duty in Iraq. Holton's message is most poignant due to his daily involvement with the Iraqi people whose homeland is undergoing drastic change. Holton's role is to interrogate high ranking Iraqi POW's who run from those who wish to delay the work of rebuilding the shattered country to those who wish to assist positively and constructively in forming a truly functioning and vibrant Iraqi economy and society.

My husband and I read this book together and really enjoyed hearing what the news doesn't cover--all the good we are doing in Iraq. There's hope. What we're doing over there is not all in vain.

There are very few books that capture the whole essence of the war going on in Iraq--with all the tribal, religious, historical and cultural divisions that plague the country. "Saving Babylon" is a whole new and most refreshing look at that war and the people who serve there. It will not only open your eyes and your mind but it will also open your heart. The author found a purpose much higher than just conducting war; he tried to make a difference in the lives of those he met there. To that end he was successful!

Author Paul Holton (Better known by many around the world as "Chief Wiggles") writes a memoir of his tour of duty in Iraq, as an interrogator for the U.S. Army, which gives the reader a real inside look at what was and is going on there. He writes about the captured generals that he personally spent months interrogating. More importantly, is the way he does it. As a former soldier, I was pleased to read how Chief Warrant Officer Holton, made it a point to uphold the principles of "The Geneva Conventions of War." He used his personality--not torture or cruel punishments (as we have read so much about in the media) to extract information from POWs. He approached his job as a professional with a humanitarian heart and not just with the POWs but with the children of the country.

The book is a wonderful read for men, women and even for mature children. It is on the MWSA "Top Ten Recommended Reading List" for 2005.

"Chief Wiggles" created a non-profit foundation to bring toys and supplies to those in need inside Iraq. This operation almost cost him his career but in the end, he was even recognized by the President of the United States in a speech at a prayer breakfast. The author writes a great story about his personal experiences; but his example as a humanitarian soldier will be his legacy. I am forever grateful for men like Paul Holton who served and gave so much from their heart. His foundation is called "Operation Give" and can be found on the web at: [...]

The Military Writer's Society of America recognizes Paul Holton's efforts with their "Humanitarian Award for 2005".

I loved this book, Paul did a great job. I have also heard him speak. He is a wonderful man who helped and still helps alot of people over in Iraq.

Reviewed by William Phenn for Reader Views (11/06)

Paul Holton, more commonly known as Chief Wiggles, has set up many humanitarian assistance and help organizations. He offers an insider view and humanistic portrayal of life in Iraq. He is adamant in his quest to inform the general public of the good in the people of Iraq. While serving the US Army as an Interrogator, he discovers the similarities among men and their families, rather than the brutal terrorists our media has reported them to be. Paul expands his mission to bring joy and goodwill to this impoverished country through Operation Give. Through his choice of giving he says he has received so much more in return. Through the sight of a small girl's tears, an idea to bring smiles to a people who have known few was born.

As an officer and Interrogator during the Iraqi War, this guardsman also wishes to educate the public of the American's humane treatment of their prisoners of war. He further expresses the goodness within the Iraqi military leaders he had the opportunity to extract information from. They parted as friends from the unlikely place of a prisoner of war camp with plans to reunite and maintain contact. After their release from camp, their word was honored with dinner at their homes with their families.

Mr. Holton has, through his kindness, befriended many individuals who will lead Iraq to a new order of government. The youth of Iraq have seen a different human soul than their previous leader has led them to believe. "Saving Babylon" describes how one soldier's goodwill may give many, hope for a brighter future. The poverty and brainwashing they have received during their lifetime is slowly replaced with hope by a stranger. Beginning with a small gift of a toy to a child, and ending with an international gift program, the author expresses how one man can make a monumental difference in world peace and understanding. He has been overjoyed to discover his program has expanded and continues its quest.

This book is easily read, with the general public as its target audience. Although this book was written during war time, the military terminology and acronyms are described so that civilians will easily understand the terms. It would be an excellent book for students to read concerning the Iraqi war.

"Saving Babylon" is a book to be read by any American citizen. It dispels the sensationalism the media seeks and reports upon. Instead, it tells a story of how our Higher Power works in the hearts of mankind throughout our world. We are more similar than different. Whether through our beliefs in a higher power, or hope for a kinder world, one man's mission has brought together families across the globe in a common bond of friendship. This fast moving 240-page novel was a gem to read and enjoy. I give it my most outstanding rating of A+, well done Mr. Holton.

Book received free of charge

Paul Holton's book SAVING BABYLON cuts through the typically negative media reporting about Operation Iraqi Freedom and puts a unique human spin on a one year deployment to Iraq. Rather than dwelling on operations and investigations, he speaks about the bond he developed not only with his fellow soldiers, but with his Iraqi contacts and the Iraqi people in general as well.

Better known to the Iraqi's as "Chief Wiggles," Holton started Operation Give, which is a program that takes toy donations from the states and distributes them to needy Iraqi children. His description of the first time he gave a toy to a poor Iraqi girl is one of the high emotional moments of the book.

Interspersed with his accounts of dealing with the Iraqi people, Holton places accounts of interrogating senior Iraqi military officers. Even in these accounts, Holton's detailed descriptions of his personal connection with the captives are both surprising and refreshing. He makes special effort to emphasize how so many of these former officers of Saddam really and truly want to work to make Iraq a better nation for its people.

A key element in Holton's ability to find the human element of the conflict is his strong faith. Never far from any of the stories relayed in the book are Holton's praying and talking with God to help him through the more difficult times of his deployment, including when he ran afoul of Army policy while following his strong moral compass.

SAVING BABYLON is a well written, easy reading book which deals with the best and worst parts of the human spirit, set against one of the most controversial conflicts of recent history. It is less about war and more about human emotion and human faith, and its message is heartwarming, especially when measured against the mostly negative media reports about the war in Iraq that we read/see/hear almost daily.

Here we have the personal memoir of Chief Warrant Officer Paul Holton, (a/k/a "Chief Wiggles") the "morale officer" in a Utah National Guard Unit. When not in uniform, Holton works as an account manager for Federal Express Corporation and travels as a missionary with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Holton's National Guard unit reported for mobilization in February 2003. Initially stationed at a holding camp in Kuwait, Holton provided intelligence support to a battalion-level commander, whose unit participated in the southern ground invasion of Iraq. After the U.S. started the war that March, Holton conducted the extended interrogation of some fourteen Iraqi Generals who had surrendered during the early days of the invasion. Once the so called "coalition forces" pursued the war into Baghdad, Holton's role morphed slightly from interrogating high ranking prisoners to gathering information from willing Iraqi citizens. Living in the "Green Zone," Holton was one of the first American military representatives whom an Iraqi citizen with information to share, would encounter.

Apparently working with little supervision, Holton's team in Baghdad interviewed Iraqi citizens and helped to funnel seed money to individuals deemed deserving of coalition favoritism (thereby stimulating the local economy.) As a part of these public relations efforts, Holton maintained a blog website that helped to insure that awareness, donated items, and funds, were raised back home for Iraqi children. This effort to get candy, toothbrushes, toothpaste, and toys delivered from U.S. donors into the hands of needy Iraqi children, was dubbed Operation "Give."

Most of Saving Babylon's 239 pages do not relate to Operation "Give," but detail Holton's retrospective of his own experience in Iraq. As an ex-intelligence analyst in the Army, this reviewer is easily convinced that Holton's subordinates benefited from his constant optimism, his unquestioning faith in the mission of the U.S. military in Iraq, and his enthusiasm for a plan that he asserted was "divinely developed, one that had something to do with blessing the Iraqi people." After all, a soldier's job is not to question his/her legal orders but to carry them out with enthusiastic professionalism.

Chief Holton might be excused for his enthusiastic support of a war that Americans were being told pre-empted an immediate WMD danger, "we're talking mushroom clouds." Holton explains "Saddam Hussein had killed thousands of his own people, and would not hesitate to give his weapons of mass destruction to a terrorist organization or to use them himself, which he had done in the past."

Most readers will appreciate Holton's enthusiasm and his willingness to forgo the comforts of home while fighting his nation's distant battles. And perhaps they can overlook his stubborn belief that the war in Iraq was a divinely inspired conflict between "good guys" and "bad guys." But the United States and the Iraqi people are paying dearly for the absurd notion that Almighty God is using the U.S. military to root out evil from the world. This reviewer, these days a teacher of history and philosophy, will appreciate Holton's memoir for a much different reason from most readers. Saving Babylon will provide undergraduate students with a contemporary comparison between a primary source's retrospective account, and subsequent scholarship, once the rest of the story becomes de-classified and then critiqued by future historians.

Mr. Holton takes you through the experience of his Iraq deployment but it just skims along as a travel-log and does not really dive into the day to day emotions that the soldiers go through while deployed in Iraq. He spends alot of time trying to convince you (or himself) that the overall purpose of the invasion is justified and for "rightous" reasons and way too little time talking about the deep and traumatic issues that all soldiers have had to face. The book never really develops a purpose or direction. With the exception of the last two chapters, you are waiting during most of the book to provide something of substance which never really happens. There are times during the book that you feel that Mr. Holton was the only soldier in Iraq...self glorifing some of his own actions only to later be investigated by the Army as being inappropriate. Having also served in Iraq during 2005, I have a much less "glorified" view of the whole situation.

M. Hawkins