> BIG BOY BOOKS BY BIG BOYS Book Reviewers: Sara Thustra and Summers
I read portions of My Year in Iraq, then scan read it, and then searched it for this and that throughout its nicely written, tidy pages. I was glad Mr. Bremer took time to put down his thoughts in much the same way as many star athletes give their thoughts the Monday after the big game. However, I saw a lot of holes in the book. If Mr. Bremer were true to the spirit of the events he encountered during the early Iraq invasion and about the calamity that has followed, he, too, would have seen the holes. His vision and sense of duty and honor might not have been so clouded if he had spoken out more truthfully, demanded more from his superiors, and had not been so eager to apple-polish and please them, especially Mr. Rumsfeld, who has been a thorn in the side of the invasion from the get-go. However, even Mr. Bremer knows that glory is a fleeting thing. He knows, too, where the money comes from.
This is more of a "memoir," which makes it easier to embellish the facts or truth or events because one's memory might not be as clear and faithful as one would hope it to be after their mission was accomplished. Such writing is worthwhile as long as the overall story is sincere. This book is not sincere. It is a book written in a tradition of writers (mainly those in politics), who performed marginally, but who see their mission as, shall we say, messianic. They write books about other people's excuses and errors, deny any culpability, shine where they once were lackluster, and make money after supporting vainglorious, illegal (or, bungled) operations that usually result in the deaths of many innocent civilians and/or American soldiers.
Ambassador L. Paul Bremer, III, is an example of what is wrong with America and it's so-called experts and career officers. He is a 35-plus year veteran of government, who has eaten well, been paid well, and has all the benefits he'll need for ten lifetimes, and he has his children safe from the horrors that he helped administrate in Iraq. And, administrated very poorly, I might add. It is sanctimonious and unfortunate that a man, who touts his own stature and, who, while plugging his book on the Diane Rehm Show, got testy about a caller who said that President George W. Bush had lied about his motives to go to war.
Bremer categorically stated the same drivel in reply (both on the show and in his book) that we have heard over and over again about how the commission on the oversight of going to war found that no one was coerced by the Bush administration to push for war, which was only part of what the commission stated (Bremer fully omits this from his book and failed to address it on the radio program). The commission did find that there were no WMD and that the intelligence was poor to weak, but Bush is and was the Commander in Chief and it was his watch to get it right; and, an honorable man like Bremer should have been more cautious about buying any old story on face value.
Bremer seems to have no sense of humility. To write a book, after he was down-sized out of Iraq because he didn't know what the heck he was doing, and to cry about events that were misunderstood or situations that failed miserably, is to substitute hubris for humility. And, of course, what he claims he might have and should have done is illuminated by the flickering light of hindsight and comfortable surroundings.
What a luxury it would be if the dead soldiers and dead civilians could come back and write a book from their experiences--in hindsight--and have a comfy place to live, a nice pension, plenty of publishing perks and the seniority to push aside anyone who might shout foul about Bremer's former bosses. Bremer, as his book shows in little bits and pieces, has frozen out the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth within his mind. He worked for an administration that got it wrong and then tried to get it right with the lives of thousands of innocent people and deceived soldiers.
On the Diane Rehm Show, Bremer said that there were huge caches of weapons which were too many to guard or oversee, but, he indicates in the book that he had years of experience and management expertise.
He went on to say that the actions of the insurgents killed a great man, U.N. Coordinator, Serge De Mello; however, it was the actions of the Bush administration that killed Mr. De Mello, since the Bush administration invaded a country and started a war and violated every principle the United States has stood for and supposedly stands for.
Mr. Bremer has a lot of loose change to play with in his post-Iraq CEO position, and it's obvious he shall make the most of it now that he is home and on safe terrain, but he and men like him, including some of our generals (a topic he fails to discuss in any meaningful way and manuevers around in his book), got out before the nasty stuff got started and are currently easing back writing their books with little or no thought about what they and their administrators have wrought.
Monday morning quarterbacking is a great way to tell a story about a game where you knew what the right plays should be, if only you could have had the skills to be the quarterback.
Yes, purchase the book, read it, but pass it on and ask others to pass it on so that only one copy more will be bought. Mr. Bremer has made enough money and will continue to make more because there are many men and women who can only understand in hindsight why they failed to manage with insight.
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The other book is Jawbreakerby Gary Berntsen and Ralph Puzzillo.
Don’t buy it just borrow it because the CIA has used its shoe polish to cover up the truth. The truth is what we’re fighting for in Iraq, isn’t it? Aren’t we trying to bring democracy to the Iraqis? This does not diminish the quality of the prose; however, it is a bummer. This is another could’ve-should’ve-might’ve-they-messed-me-up hindsight book. Ho, hum. The fact of the matter is--as the overused expression goes--Osama bin Laden is still out there and still venerated by many people, who obviously have a great interest in protecting him. Perhaps, we should make a truce with him and he could teach us how to catch terrorists, the ones who attacked us, not the ones we invaded on false CIA information and President Bush’s Freudian leap to please his father--the president who didn’t get the job done in the first Gulf War.
It’s a great title, but it’s all awash in black ink and not worth paying the full price for. Besides, who can know for certain who is telling the truth? And what truth are they telling, when the truth put forth by the United States Government is full of false ideas, inflated facts and figures, shoddy planning, and misleading information? Love the country--the people--not the government, which seems to be the subliminal message that comes through in Jawbreaker.
God made the entire world in six days and had time to rest. The United States has all the fire-power, technology, former Nazi scientists, and WMD in the universe and it can’t find the real perpetrators of 9/11. We didn’t even get Saddam, he got himself for us.
Anyway, intrigue and tough-guy blather and men on the hunt are always fun to read about even if most of it has been rudely edited by the CIA (what have they got to hide, they never got it right about 9/11, anyway). I’m sure we’ll see Jawbreaker in the movies before the war is over in 10 or more years.
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THE BEST BOOK OF THE ENTIRE LOT IS STEVE COLL'S PULITZER PRIZE WINNING NON-FICTION BOOK: GHOST WARS: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan and bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001, published by The Penguin Press. Coll's book is an amazing accomplishment. Read it! The "NOTES" section at the end of the book is just as informative as the book itself.
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