<![CDATA[Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone]]>

false <![CDATA[Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167333175m/22121.jpg 22121 15 An unprecedented account of life in Baghdad's Green Zone, a walled-off enclave of towering plants, posh villas, and sparkling swimming pools that was the headquarters for the American occupation of Iraq. The Washington Post's former Baghdad bureau chief Rajiv Chandrasekaran takes us with him into the Zone: into a bubble, cut off from wartime realities, where the task of reconstructing a devastated nation competed with the distractions of a Little America's half-dozen bars stocked with cold beer, a disco where women showed up in hot pants, a movie theater that screened shoot-em-up films, an all-you-could-eat buffet piled high with pork, a shopping mall that sold pornographic movies, a parking lot filled with shiny new SUVs, and a snappy dry-cleaning service—much of it run by Halliburton. Most Iraqis were barred from entering the Emerald City for fear they would blow it up. Drawing on hundreds of interviews and internal documents, Chandrasekaran tells the story of the people and ideas that inhabited the Green Zone during the occupation, from the imperial viceroy L. Paul Bremer III to the fleet of twentysomethings hired to implement the idea that Americans could build a Jeffersonian democracy in an embattled Middle Eastern country. In the vacuum of postwar planning, Bremer ignores what Iraqis tell him they want or need and instead pursues irrelevant neoconservative solutions—a flat tax, a sell-off of Iraqi government assets, and an end to food rationing. His underlings spend their days drawing up pie-in-the-sky policies, among them a new traffic code and a law protecting microchip designs, instead of rebuilding looted buildings and restoring electricity production. His almost comic initiatives anger the locals and help fuel the insurgency. Chandrasekaran details Bernard Kerik’s ludicrous attempt to train the Iraqi police and brings to light lesser known but typical travesties: the case of the twenty-four-year-old who had never worked in finance put in charge of reestablishing Baghdad’s stock exchange; a contractor with no previous experience paid millions to guard a closed airport; a State Department employee forced to bribe Americans to enlist their help in preventing Iraqi weapons scientists from defecting to Iran; Americans willing to serve in Iraq screened by White House officials for their views on Roe v. Wade; people with prior expertise in the Middle East excluded in favor of lesser-qualified Republican Party loyalists. Finally, he describes Bremer’s ignominious departure in 2004, fleeing secretly in a helicopter two days ahead of schedule. This is a startling portrait of an Oz-like place where a vital aspect of our government’s folly in Iraq played out. It is a book certain to be talked about for years to come. 1275660 19 9 2006 Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone total:1125|5:367|4:525|3:202|2:28|1:3| 1125 4600 1718 293 2 5 true false Thu Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Fri Mar 30 23:15:24 -0700 2007 Sun Apr 01 11:04:46 -0700 2007 Although Chandrasekaran begins with a narrative "I," he never really identifies himself, and then launches into details about things like relationships between State department me...more...]]> 4 2 true false Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Fri Jul 06 02:14:26 -0700 2007 Fri Jul 06 02:26:46 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 2 false false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sat Jul 14 09:29:00 -0700 2007 Fri Aug 10 08:57:29 -0700 2007
The Coalition Provisional Authority sets up shop in on...more...]]> 3 1 false false Thu Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Sat Oct 04 06:14:44 -0700 2008 Sat Oct 04 06:15:19 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 1 false false Sat Jun 28 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Jun 28 06:06:09 -0700 2008 Sat Jun 28 06:32:21 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 1 false false Tue Jun 10 14:01:50 -0700 2008 Tue Jun 10 14:10:14 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 1 false false Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Mon Jan 21 07:58:31 -0800 2008 Mon Jan 21 08:27:39 -0800 2008 Washington Post, this book is simply what he saw in Iraq between the "end" of combat in 2003 and Paul Bremer's ignominious departure in 2004. Mostly what he sees is the complete mismanagement of basic postwar planning; the first raised, t...more...]]> 4 1 false false Fri Aug 31 19:40:47 -0700 2007 Fri Aug 31 19:43:31 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 1 false false Sun Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sun Jul 08 16:16:39 -0700 2007 Sun Jul 08 16:28:44 -0700 2007 more...]]> 0 0 false false Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Jan 06 15:49:08 -0800 2009 Tue Jan 06 15:49:48 -0800 2009 Rajiv Chandrasekaran

Publisher’s note:
In this unprecedented account, The Washington Post's former Baghdad bureau chief, Rajiv Chandrasekaran, takes us into the Green Zone, headquarters for
the American occ...more...]]> 0 0 false false Thu Feb 05 09:50:17 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 05 09:50:17 -0800 2009 Rajiv Chandrasekaran, assistant managing editor of the Washington Post and its former Baghdad bureau chief, knows the landscape in Iraq as well as anyone, having spent two years in-country as a reporter. His careful, evenhanded reportage amplifies the seriousness of the problems that America still f...

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This book has a very specific goal to convey what it was like to be part of the Occupational Forces in I...more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Jan 10 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Fri Mar 20 21:34:32 -0700 2009 Fri Mar 20 21:41:00 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Tue Nov 04 14:21:20 -0800 2008 Mon Dec 15 08:13:48 -0800 2008 once more...]]> 5 0 false false Wed Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed May 13 15:51:17 -0700 2009 Sun May 17 12:13:59 -0700 2009 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=22121