Mention Out Of Books Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone

Title:Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone
Author:Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Book Format:Hardcover
Book Edition:First Edition
Pages:Pages: 320 pages
Published:September 19th 2006 by Knopf (first published 2006)
Categories:History. Nonfiction. Politics. War. Military Fiction
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Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone Hardcover | Pages: 320 pages
Rating: 4.02 | 5557 Users | 605 Reviews

Explanation In Pursuance Of Books Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone

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—a 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.

Be Specific About Books Supposing Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone

Original Title: Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone
ISBN: 1400044871 (ISBN13: 9781400044870)
Edition Language: English URL http://www.rajivc.com/book.htm
Literary Awards: Guardian First Book Award Nominee (2007), Ridenhour Book Prize (2007), Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction (2007), Cornelius Ryan Award (2006), National Book Award Finalist for Nonfiction (2006)

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Ratings: 4.02 From 5557 Users | 605 Reviews

Critique Out Of Books Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone
This is primarily a collection of anecdotes of the tenure of the Coalition Provisional Authority under Bremer in Iraq, and to a lesser extent the shorter tenure of Jay Garner preceding the CPA. The purpose of the book is to illustrate how badly the U.S. screwed up the occupation of Iraq. While a few of the anecdotes don't strike me as being nearly as negative as the author colors them, on balance this book basically makes one ill, just by emphasizing how badly we were served by our government.

Everyone knows the American occupation of Iraq has been anything but a success, but if you really want to know how and why it spiraled into a free-fall, read Imperial Life in the Emerald City. Its an enraging document of spectacular failure--about how, during the first year of the occupation, virtually every effort to restore food rationing, medical care, electricity, factory production, traffic law, the university system, the police force, the Iraqi news media, and the writing of a new

I read this during Spring Break. A very informative book. It is kind of depressing to see how the U.S. Government has allowed private contractors carte blanche as well as establishing a bureacracy in the middle of the war zone in Iraq that would compare with any on Capitol Hill. It made this die-hard Conservative wonder about the effectiveness of our involvement in Iraq.

This book was well done; however, a lot of focus was on the negative. MSM tends to already be trying to drag down what is going on there; Not saying it's all rosy, but as a retired Military person, I know exactly what the cost is in combat and "occupation" force, and really would like to see someone not use this war (and that's what it is) for political badgering because you don't like how the administration is doing things, so much as an opportunity to observe and report and let smart people

A brilliant satire on the occupation of a Middle Eastern country....well it would be, if it weren't true. This gives the reader a fairly shocking insight into the incompetency, arrogance and corruption involved in the Iraq occupation.The Coalition Provisional Authority sets up shop in one of Saddam's palaces and creates a little bubble of Americana called the Green Zone surrounded by a Baghdad teetering on and, subsequently, falling into an abyss. The author, Rajiv Chandrasekaran, restrains

I picked up this book for some research on a novel about the war in Iraq. I obtained it for free from the VA so I am not a verified purchaser. My edition includes a small photo on the cover of Matt Damon in Green Zone and the blurb, "The inspiration for the major motion picture." I did not see the movie. I have been looking forward to reading this for some time but was put off by endorsements like this from John Le Carre, "Black comedy, set in the graveyard of the neo-conservative dream.

Rajiv Chanrdasekaran - Image from Citizen UniversityBaghdads Green Zone is a world unto itself, with its own power supply, water, restaurants. One need never leave, and many never do. The author describes the separateness of the place but uses that as a base from which to foray out to related subjects. Some of his examples are particularly poignant. One enterprising fellow built a pizzeria just outside the compound, only to discover that the Americans all eat inside. He talks much about the