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We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People (American Empire Project) Paperback – August 21, 2012

by
Peter Van Buren (Author)
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Peter Van Buren (Author)
4.5 out of 5 stars 107 customer reviews
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Product Details

  • Series: American Empire Project
  • Paperback: 288 pages
  • Publisher: Metropolitan Books (August 21, 2012)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0805096817
  • ISBN-13: 978-0805096811
  • Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.8 x 8.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (107 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #122,341 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsA Great Study in State Department ann Military Buraucracy
By Virginia music lover on September 27, 2011
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
This book could serve as a text for courses in Foreign Policy, government organization, or military operations. It is a withering look at how some State Department bureaucrats and military officers play a game in order to advance their careers, without much care as to the effect their projects and policies have on flesh and blood people. Van Buren's book is humorous, and easy reading. Underneath, there is a level of tragedy and sadness, as clearly the author was affected by the amorality and immorality of wanting U.S. efforts to once again "win the hearts and minds" of a people whose country we had invaded.

Van Buren discusses the tedium, the mind numbing meetings, the social meetings between Iraqis and U.S. officials where optics were the prime concern, the worthless projects, and the waste of huge sums of money. We do not see one-dimensional characters for the most part. We meet Iraqis who are idealists (very few), trying to get rich, embittered or saddened. Military officers are often portrayed as interested in short term success to enhance their careers. State Department policy is seen as confused, ignorant, and ever changing.

Every taxpayer who thinks we should give the military whatever it wants in terms of a defense budget should read this book; they will likely reconsider their opinions. Those who think U.S. foreign policy is guided by experts with clear goals will receive a rude awakening.

As I write this review, I have read that the author is now being harassed by federal investigators. This is very much a whistleblowing book, and sadly whistleblowers are often punished. I wish the author well; clearly he will have no future in government. However he seems to be a patriot, intent on telling the public how badly our government functions.

In short, this is a book that is both entertaining and disturbing.
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5.0 out of 5 starsI cried until I laughed
By Patawan on October 14, 2011
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
I've had the honor of working for the author who, in my personal opinion, is a management genius. Be it a visa line, aiding American citizens flee a disaster zone, or applying lessons learned from the Home Depot into government work, Peter is awesome and I'd "serve with him anywhere."

Knowing Peter, I perhaps did not laugh as much as other readers. Rather, as his tour progressed in the book, I became more apprehensive and distraught knowing that a good man and a great officer such as himself could be negated by the selfish greed of locals and self-promotion agenda of superiors. I can only imagine the frustration and disappointment he had to go through. Among the chapters of mind-numbingly stupid US-funded projects, Peter details his experience living at a Forward Operating Base (FOB) with its smells, sounds, and tastes (whether agreeable or not). The reader will come to understand the social relationships in a FOB; sometimes funny which is surprising noting the number of mortar attacks that occurred, sometimes heartbreakingly human.

I strongly encourage any State Department employee, officer and contractor alike, to read it. You'll probably be disappointed, disgusted, and/or outraged. Once that's passed though, learn the lessons offered in the book.
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5.0 out of 5 starsActions without Accountability
By AJM on September 30, 2011
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
Probably the closest thing to an honest audit of our efforts to "rebuild" Iraq, this book is disturbing to the point of being humorous. If only it weren't OUR country, our war and our tax dollars going to fund the circus. Or real lives being destroyed so that the show can go on. What's clear from the stories told here - that there's really only one goal in Iraq - "look busy". Blow things up so we can rebuild them. Identify non-existent problems so we can throw money at trying to solve them. Iraq is the US's ultimate exercise in sloppy socialism - pouring money into building schools, industries, infrastructure, etc (none of which ultimately works or is used as intended) - all the while those same things crumble into ruin back home. If half the stuff in this book is true, then our leaders should be shamed into resigning and then replaced with people who (like the author) "get it". As mentioned in a previous comment, the opposite will likely happen - the author now being harassed into submission and under threat of losing his job for being honest. Welcome to the new America.
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5.0 out of 5 starsSix Stars & Beyond--Open Heart Surgery on a Corrupt Ignorant Government
By Robert David STEELE Vivas HALL OF FAMETOP 1000 REVIEWER on September 29, 2011
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
FINAL REVIEW

The author himself begins the book with a reference to Dispatches (Everyman's Library Classics & Contemporary Classics) followed by Catch-22: 50th Anniversary Edition, to which I would add A Rumor of War. This is a great book, an important book, and I salute the Department of State people with integrity that approved it for publication, while scorning the seventh floor craven autocrats that have bullied the author for telling the truth. This book is the real deal, and I have multiple notes along the lines of gifted writing, humble *and* erudite, quiet humor, ample factual detail, gonzo-gifted prose, an eye for compelling detail, *absorbing,* a catalog of absurdities and how not to occupy a country.

Late in my notes I write "Reality so rich it stuns. A time capsule, priceless deep insights into occupation at its worst."

And also write down an alternative subtitle: "The Zen of Government Idiocy Squared."

This is a book, from a single vantage point, of the specifics of "pervasive waste and inefficiency, mistaken judments, flawed policies, and structural weakness." Speaking of the Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRT), the author says "We were the ones who famously helped past together feathers year after year, hoping for a duck.Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsExcellent. Shows how any intervention

Excellent. Shows how any intervention, no matter how well meaning, is misdirected because we assume their society is, and desires to be, similar to ours. Read more

Published 1 month ago by R. Pace
4.0 out of 5 starsInteresting, entertaining

A minor American functionary gives anecdotal evidence of the waste and folly committed by the US government in the attempt to administer Iraq after the war of 2003. Read more

Published 1 month ago by olemikey
4.0 out of 5 starsAccurate and poignant

I spent my time in Afghanistan. The same war in a different location. When will the US learn... Reading this book is a good start.

Published 1 month ago by GaryL77
5.0 out of 5 starsA "Top 5" Iraq War Story

This is perhaps the best personal account I have read on what life was like outside the Green Zone for those of us on distant FOBs who weren't involved in the daily grind and... Read more

Published 2 months ago by GraniteSapper
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

A must read!

Published 3 months ago by CJV
4.0 out of 5 starsCould not put it down.

This book is about the experience of a State Department employee in Iraq, where he was obliged to serve for a year. It is at the same time outrageous and hilarious! Read more

Published 3 months ago by ismini
5.0 out of 5 starsHubris and stupiduty in the sand.

This book explains superbly the American combinations of good intent, ignorance of Islamic culture, arrogance and wishing to run other's lives mixed with heavy handedness and... Read more

Published 6 months ago by NIKOS
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

We should make this mandatory reading in high school!

Published 7 months ago by James Strickland
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Excellent

Published 10 months ago by FC Burger
5.0 out of 5 starsThe nitty gritty on the disaster of the war in ...

The nitty gritty on the disaster of the war in Iraq. Americans have never unterstood dse Middle East. IRMA DICKINSON

Published 12 months ago by irma dickinson

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