StarAstrologer - Books : Out of the Ashes: The Resurrection of Saddam Hussein
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 956.70443
EAN: 9780060929831
ISBN: 0060929839
Label: Harper Perennial
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 336
Publication Date: March 01, 2000
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Release Date: February 16, 2000
Sales Rank: 876145
Studio: Harper Perennial
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
At the end of the Gulf War, the White House was confident that Saddam Hussein's days as Iraq's dictator were numbered. His army had been routed, his country had been bombed back into a pre-industrial age, his subjects were in bloody revolt, and his borders were sealed. World leaders waited confidently for the downfall of the pariah of Baghdad. Almost a decade later, they are still waiting.
This is the first in-depth account of what went wrong. Drawing on the authors' firsthand experiences on the ground inside Iraq (often under fire) and their interviews with key players--ranging from members of Saddam's own family to senior officials of the CIA--Out of the Ashes tells what happened when the smoke cleared from the battlefields of the Gulf War. This tale of high drama, labyrinthine intrigue, and fatal blunders has been played out amid one of the greatest man-made tragedies of our times-one where, so long as Saddam Hussein remains in power, the Iraqi people will pay the price. Out of the Ashes makes chillingly clear just how terrible that price has been.
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
Average Rating: 
Rating: -
This is an interesting book regarding Iraq during the time period between the First Gulf War and the election of George W. Bush in 2000. All the blame that has been laid at the feet of George W. Bush should not be as Clinton should be fielding blame for a lot of it. For example, the CIA was given the order to "bring me Saddam's head" during the 1996 Presidential election.
At no time did Clinton change the policies set by George Bush I. There is also no evidence that the Democrats ... Read More
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The 90's were a very rough decade for Iraq and a very complicated period to study. U.S. policy at the time was all over the place (Clinton should be faulted for doing a horrible job handling Iraq, and Bush '41 should be faulted for handing Clinton an impossible situation to deal with). There was the matter of the sanctions, the failed U.S.-led coup attempt, and everything that happened with the weapons inspections process.
It should be noted that this book does not cover everything from ... Read More
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In the lead up to the latest Iraq war, there was no end to books and press on the weapons of mass destruction, terrorist links, and just how nasty Saddam was. In my opinion, the one area that was ignored or just not fully covered was the period of time between the two wars. This book fills a major part of that time gap. The authors give a concise and readable history of Saddam up to 1991, which is no small feat given the rather obscure political situation and tribal consideration of Middle East Politics ... Read More
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If you are looking for one book to give you a thorough background on Iraq and its relations with the US, this is it. The Cockburn brothers have refused to dumb down the information, and yet have written a book that is accessible to all curious readers. Their lively account of the rise of Saddam and his Baath party held my attention throughout, reeling me in with good stories, while at the same time communicating the highly complex workings of the Iraqi government over the past several decades. Operating in ... Read More
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To paraphrase the philosopher Walter Benjamin, �hope was given to us precisely for the sake of the hopeless.� I recall here Benjamin�s brilliant apercu because there might not be another people so utterly lacking in hope and so desperately in need of the consolations and opportunities provided by such hope as the Iraqis. These people have been fated to suffer not only the murderous clan led by Saddam Hussein but also the scheming and witless �help� of their morally defective �protector,� the United ... Read More
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