Out of the Ashes: The Resurrection of Saddam Hussein (Hardcover)

by Andrew Cockburn (Author), Patrick Cockburn (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
When the United States and its allies launched Operation Desert Storm against Iraq in 1991 in retaliation for that nation's invasion of Kuwait, the plans to bomb "command and control" centers had a clear, albeit largely unspoken, objective: "We don't do assassinations," National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft has acknowledged, "but yes, we targeted all the places where Saddam might have been." The only problem: he wasn't there and, nearly a decade after the Gulf War, he continues to remain in power.

Patrick and Andrew Cockburn present a two-pronged story in Out of the Ashes. They fill readers in on the background of Saddam Hussein's rise to power; an instrumental figure in the Baath Party's 1968 seizure of power, he became president of Iraq in 1979, initiating his reign with a bloody purge of dissenters. The two journalists also chart the disastrous effects of the economic sanctions to which Iraq has been subject since 1991. The sanctions were intended to provoke Iraqi military leadership into overthrowing Saddam, but public remarks by then-president George Bush inadvertently inspired revolt among the general Iraqi population. The military was thus too busy putting down nationwide rebellion to organize a coup; a CIA-sponsored effort five years later was an abject failure. And the sanctions, the Cockburns note, appear to have succeeded only in creating holocaust conditions and anti-Western sentiment among the Iraqis.

Patrick Cockburn brings the experience of 20 years spent covering the Middle East, and his brother Andrew is well known for his reportage on the American government's policymaking. The result is a wealth of information about Iraqi politics--and the consistent miscomprehension of those politics by U.S. strategic planners--delivered in a tightly written narrative. --Ron Hogan

From Publishers Weekly
Indispensable to anyone who wants to understand the Iraq crisis, the Cockburns' riveting report on Saddam Hussein's murderous regime and U.S.-backed attempts to overthrow it in the wake of the Gulf War is packed with revelations. The book is especially timely, given the recent U.S. announcement that it is going to step up covert operations aimed at ousting Saddam. Illuminating previous attempts to topple Saddam, the authors give readers thorough accounts of various failures, including the half-hearted American support of Kurdish and Shiite opposition groups immediately after the war and a botched 1996 CIA operation that the Cockburns liken to the Bay of Pigs fiasco. The Cockburns maintain that the U.S.-led sanctions policy is a big mistake, making the Iraqi people pay the priceAmalnutrition, soaring child mortality, deepening povertyAfor an evil dictator whom the masses despise. The U.S., they conclude, can do little to oust Saddam, while the best course is to wait for Iraqis to take matters into their own handsAas the authors believe they inevitably will. The Cockburns are seasoned reporters (Andrew, author of One Point Safe with Leslie Cockburn, coproduced a 1991 PBS documentary on Iraq; Patrick, author of Getting Russia Wrong, is Middle East correspondent for the London Independent). In the process of explaining how Saddam clings to power, the authors also shed light on the history of the tyrant and his ruling clique, internal Iraqi politics and the evolution and transformation of American policy.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins (March 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060192666
• ISBN-13: 978-0060192662
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,843,674 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Insightful and well-researched!, March 28, 2002

By	Critical Eyes "benjamintlh" (Singapore) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Out of the Ashes: The Resurrection of Saddam Hussein (Paperback)

This book presents valuable insights into post-gulf war Iraq and the political intricacies of Saddams regime. Given the recent major terrorist incidents, the study of Iraq and its dictator holds great relevance. Iraq had used chemical weapons against Iran and the Kurds, and was known to have ambitious programs to build a biological, chemical and nuclear arsenal. Thanks to the UN sanctions, its economic prowess has been significantly weakened. Otherwise, it could be both a formidable terror state as well as resource-rich sponsor of terrorism worldwide. But an Iraq under Saddam cannot be underestimated; it is and has always been a very real threat. What should be USs policies towards this rogue state? Well, read this book and maybe you would have formed some answers in your mind.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a good read, February 28, 1999

By A Customer

Out of the Ashes was good book and a timely one. Its greatest strengths are the authors' description of Hussein's family and its murderous pattern of doing "business."

But it's not a perfect book. I got the impression that some events were glossed over by the Cockburns. There is also a very faint aroma of anti-American sentiment. The authors find much to criticize --particularly Scott Ritter-- but only spend a paragraph or so at the very end of the book suggesting how we can deal with Saddam.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Do we even have a policy?, March 8, 1999

By A Customer

It is hard to imagine how a better book on the subject of Iraq since the Gulf War could be written. Andrew Cockburn - based in Washington, DC and Patrick - based in Jerusalem - are able to make use of an incredible assortment of inside sources to take us step-by-step through the US's (in most cases the CIA's) disastrous non-strategy of the past decade. Illogical and inconsistent policies, the betrayal of allies, lost opportunities, a continued failure to support viable oppostion movements - it's all here, crisply narrated.

What really sets this book apart is the authors' astounding ability to elicit surreal humor from the most evil of situations - for example a first-hand account of Saddam's murdurous son Uday (who is also Chair of the Iraqi Olympic Committee, which has its own prison) discussing with his very fat and very drunk Armenian tailor (known as 'the philosopher') the relative merits of Liberace and Engelbert Humperdinck.

I read this book this weekend at a single sitting, and I am proud to add it to my extensive library of Middle East policy studies. I cannot recommend it highly enough.