The Assassins' Gate (74 page)

3. George Packer offers a history of not only the creation of Iraq but also of American foreign policy in the twentieth century, including portraits of the original neoconservatives. Which aspects of this history were most surprising to you? What should world leaders have learned from this history?

4. Discuss the men who advocated invading Iraq early on, such as Robert Kagan and Paul Wolfowitz. Is there a common denominator (idealism about democracy, flexing a military muscle) in their rationales? According to Packer's account, why was George W. Bush so determined to topple Saddam's regime?

5. Chapter three begins with Kanan Makiya's decision not to participate in the State Department's Future of Iraq Project. Were his views about the war misguided? What does his story say about the opinions of exiles?

6. What did you discover about the Coalition Provisional Authority by reading about administrators such as Drew Erdmann, whose story opens chapter four? What drives Drew, Meghan O'Sullivan, and the numerous other men and women like them who hoped to build representative government in Iraq?

7. Chapter six describes the transition of authority from Jay Garner to Paul Bremer, who soon issued the uncompromising Debaathification Order. Do you believe that the flourishing insurgency is the result of Paul Bremer's inexperience, or would the situation have decayed just as much under Jay Garner?

8. How does the rebuilding of Iraq compare to the rebuilding of Japan, Germany, Bosnia, and other postwar scenarios in history? To what degree should the current turmoil in Iraq be attributed to the era of T. E. Lawrence (“Lawrence of Arabia”) and British colonialism? What did you make of the Iraqis who told George Packer they thought the British were better than Americans at being occupiers?

9. Packer observes the problem of unproven accusations, paired with a thirst for vengeance, permeating many of Iraq's factions. What does it take to overcome such deep-seated cultural attitudes?

10. Are looting, sabotage, and the general chaos of Iraq purely a result of too few American troops being sent to move the country from Phase III to Phase IV (combat to stability operations)?

11. Chapter eight introduces Aseel, a progressive Iraqi woman who asks, “Do you think my dreams will come true?” How would you respond to her question?

12.
The Assassins' Gate
provides considerable insight into Iraqi attitudes toward sexuality. What accounts for the obsession with the virginity tests for women? In what way do these attitudes exemplify other aspects of Iraqi culture? Will these attitudes ultimately undermine any hope for peace or human rights in the region?

13. Discuss the experience of journalists as described in
The Assassins' Gate.
What did you discover about the process by which Packer gathered his facts, and the variety of backgrounds among his translators? How has the prevalence of journalists from around the globe, combined with technologies that allow soldiers and civilians to e-mail personal observations to their friends back home, changed the face of war? How has coverage of this war, in which journalists have become targets, compared to the Gulf War, and to Vietnam?

14. In what way does the story of Private Kurt Frosheiser speak to the schism between those who support and those who decry the war? What did you make of the vast differences between the way Kurt's mother and father reacted to his death?

15. In the long run, what will the social repercussions of the invasion be, for both Americans and Iraqis? What might the various figures mentioned in the book say if Packer were to interview them again in twenty years?

16. Do you think American troops will ever leave Iraq altogether? If so, when and how?

Further Reading

A Pretext for War: 9/11, Iraq, and the Abuse of America's Intelligence Agencies,
by James Bamford;
My Year in Iraq: The Struggle to Build a Future of Hope,
by L. Paul Bremer III;
Squandered Victory: The American Occupation and the Bungled Effort to Bring Democracy to Iraq,
by Larry Diamond;
Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq,
by Michael R. Gordon and General Bernard E. Trainor;
Cruelty and Silence: War, Tyranny, Uprising, and the Arab World,
by Kanan Makiya;
Republic of Fear: The Politics of Modern Iraq,
by Kanan Makiya;
American Theocracy: The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21st Century,
by Kevin Phillips;
Understanding Iraq: The Whole Sweep of Iraqi History, from Genghis Khan's Mongols to the Ottoman Turks to the British Mandate to the American Occupation,
by William R. Polk;
The Prince of the Marshes: And Other Occupational Hazards of a Year in Iraq,
by Rory Stewart

A
LSO BY
G
EORGE
P
ACKER

NONFICTION

The Village of Waiting

Blood of the Liberals

FICTION

The Half Man

Central Square

AS EDITOR

The Fight Is for Democracy:

Winning the War of Ideas in America and the World

P
raise for
T
HE
A
SSASSINS
' G
ATE

“Absorbing … Packer provides page after page of vivid description of the haphazard, poorly planned and almost criminally executed occupation of Iraq. In reading him we see the staggering gap between abstract ideas and concrete reality.”

—Fareed Zakaria,
The New York Times Book Review
(cover review)

“Packer is a rare combination: an excellent reporter, a sophisticated analyst and a fine writer … He has given us a remarkable history of the Iraq war, a work of keen analysis, superb reporting and deep compassion.”

—Gary Kamiya,
Salon.com

“A deftly constructed and eloquently told account of the war's origins and aftermath … Deeply human and maddeningly vivid.”

—David Kurtz-Phelan,
Los Angeles Times Book Review

“[Packer] has succeeded in creating a book that is not only relevant but discerning and provocative. Using on-the-ground reporting and a talent for storytelling, he offers the vivid detail and balanced analysis that have made him one of the leading chroniclers of the Iraq war.”

—Yonatan Lupu,
San Francisco Chronicle

“[Packer] deftly moves among the originators and the victims of the war … Essential reading for anyone interested in how the United States stumbled into Mideast quicksand.”

—
The Boston Globe

“[This book] is much more than an investigation of failure. It is an engrossing account of war and chaos, and it provides rich portraits of ordinary Iraqis, about whom we know so little from daily news reports.”

—Patrick Coolican,
The Seattle Times

“The most complete, sweeping, and powerful account of the Iraq War yet written … The portrait he paints of Iraq in the year and a half after the invasion is full and vivid and utterly, utterly damning … Packer has done something more valuable than write the tale of his own disillusionment. He has depicted in stark colors the disillusionment of an entire nation.”

—Keith Gessen,
New York

“Packer is a storyteller, and an artful one.”

—Chris Toensing,
The Nation

“The great strength of George Packer's
The Assassins' Gate
is that it gives a fair hearing to both views. Free of cant—but not, crucially, of anger—Mr. Packer has written an account of the Iraq War that will stand alongside such narrative histories as
A Bright Shining Lie, Fire in the Lake
and
Hell in a Very Small Place.
As a meditation on the limits of American power, it's sobering. As a pocket history of Iraq and the United States' tangled history, it's indispensable. As an examination of the collision between arrogance and good intentions, it could scarcely be improved upon.”

—Tom Bissell,
The New York Observer

“Bravura frontline reporting and laser-targeted analysis.”

—
Men's Journal

“Packer's book is written with great clarity and draws on his experience as one of
The New Yorker
's more perceptive reporters … The people he writes about—Washington neoconservatives, CPA bureaucrats, and ordinary Iraqis whose lives were turned upside down by decisions made elsewhere—speak to the reader in their own voices.”

—Peter Galbraith,
The New York Review of Books

“To describe [Packer's] new book as smart and well-written (which it is) would not be saying very much … Snippets of the book won't convey the range of its coverage, the variety of portraiture and incident it records. Nor can it more than hint at the remarkable precision and control of the prose.”

—Scott McLemee,
Newsday

“The best book yet written on the Iraq war.”

—Adam Kirsch,
The New York Sun

“Mr. Packer brilliantly describes the evolving mindset of the neoconservatives who took hold of policy towards Iraq in the run-up to the war, as well as the hopes and arguments of their assorted Iraqi allies in exile … Where he scores most is in portraying the psychology of Iraqis, their ambivalence to the liberation/occupation … Mr. Packer empathizes with them in all their diversity, drawing a remarkable cast of sharply defined characters.”

—
The Economist

“Read George Packer's book,
The Assassins' Gate,
if you haven't already … [Packer] has got it right.”

—Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell

“Packer's account is suspenseful, heartbreaking and infuriating, like watching a slow-motion bus accident …
The Assassins' Gate
is simply indispensable.”

—Jerome Weeks,
The Miami Herald

“As memorable as Michael Herr's
Dispatches,
and of surpassing immediacy.”

—
Kirkus Reviews
(starred review)

“It is a pleasure to find a work that strives for balance, fairness, and understanding in surveying the causes and course of the ongoing Iraqi war … This is a troubling but deeply moving examination of a struggle that seems far from resolution.”

—Jay Freeman,
Booklist

“The best book I read in 2005 … [Packer's] writing combines a nuanced understanding of the most obscure foreign-policy journals along with heart-racing narratives based on his own experiences in country.”

—Stephen Elliott,
LA Weekly

“A brilliantly reported analysis of the war in Iraq.”

—
GQ

“The richest, most unsettling synthesis of reporting and careful thinking to come out of either Washington or Baghdad about the conflict … A rigorous, sustained inquiry into the clashing expectations for Iraq, how the war was planned, and the staggering wreckage of Iraqi society.”

—Robert Ruby,
The Baltimore Sun

“This is the first truly great book of the Iraq war.”

—
The Washington Monthly

“George Packer, a staff writer for
The New Yorker,
blends on-the-scene reporting and thoughtful analysis in a sobering account of the unfinished war in Iraq and its impact on Americans and Iraqis. He cheers the demise of Saddam, while questioning a war with deep roots in history, but far from inevitable.”

—Bob Minzesheimer,
USA Today

“The Iraq debate has long needed someone who is both tough-minded enough, and sufficiently sensitive, to register all its complexities. In George Packer's work, this need is answered … Packer has a genuine instinct for what the Iraqi people have endured and are enduring, and writes with admirable empathy. His own opinions are neither suppressed nor intrusive: he clearly welcomes the end of Saddam while having serious doubts about the wisdom of the war, and he continually tests himself against experience.”

—Christopher Hitchens,
Publishers Weekly

“In the midst of a war that has raised thousands of questions, George Packer has given us a brilliant, moving, and essential book with answers. Packer, who was an up-close witness to the prewar debates and the wartime carnage, cuts past the simplistic recriminations and takes us on an unforgettable journey that begins on a trail of good intentions and winds up on a devastating trail of tears. If you want to understand how Iraq became a quagmire, and who the human beings are who suffer its consequences, you must read this book.”

—Samantha Power, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of
“A Problem from Hell”: America and the Age of Genocide