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A book by George Packer that looks at the US involvement in Iraq.
Packer became an early supporter of the war but on close-hand viewing is disheartened by the botching of the occupation. The book does a good job in describing how the White House came around to the idea of attacking Iraq and talked itself into the bizarre scenarios they were sure were going to happen: we'd be viewed as liberators, we'd be out in a few months, oil revenues would pay for it, allies would rush in, etc. Also, the total lack of reaching out to actual Iraqis who had lived under Saddam as opposed to expats was incredibly naive. The fact that Americans can no longer leave the Green Zone without heavy armor is a sad development.
A thoughtful, interesting book. Also, makes reading the news nowadays interesting in light of having just read about these characters.
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