Showing We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People by Peter Van Buren

Paperback. Pub Date :2012-08-21 Pages: 290 Language: English Publisher: Metropolitan Books One diplomats darkly humorous and ultimately scathing assault on just about everything the military and State Department have done-or tried to do-since the invasion of Iraq. The title says it all. -The New York Times Charged with rebuilding Iraq. would you spend taxpayer money on a sports mural in Baghdads most dangerous neighborhood to promote reconciliation through art How about an isolated milk factory that cannot get its milk to market Or a pastry class training women to open cafs on bombed-out streets that lack water and electricity As Peter Van Buren shows. we bought all these projects and more in the most expensive hearts-and-minds campaign since the Marshall Plan. We Meant Well is his eyewitness account of the civilian side of the surge-that surreal and bollixed attempt to defe...