War And Peace

Friday, March 20, marks the sixth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

While the conflict's price tag mounts, and President Obama vows to add troops in Afghanistan, the story behind the invasion seems to recede farther and farther from our thoughts. An antiwar rally Sunday, March 15, in Salem drew only a couple hundred people. Bad news at home—about rising unemployment, the nationwide housing crisis, and the federal deficit—has eclipsed discussion of Iraq.

But as the anniversary approached, WW asked local elected officials and other thinkers what reading material they'd recommend on Iraq. Here's a sampling of the more interesting answers.

Diana Abu-Jaber is a novelist whose first book, Arabian Jazz, won the Oregon Book Award in 1994. Her novel Crescent won the American Book Award in 2003. She teaches English at Portland State University.

Baghdad Diaries: A Woman's Chronicle of War and Exile, by Nuha Al-Radi

Al-Radi's memoir is set in Iraq during the Persian Gulf War of 1991 and follows the author for 10 years as she confronts what's happening to her country under Saddam Hussein. "It's a harrowing and very personal account of what it was like for one family to try to carry on daily life in Baghdad while under siege," Abu-Jaber tells WW. "I've never read a more intimate and electrifying testimonial. It unpacks the political issues surrounding Saddam Hussein and the American presence in Iraq while always keeping these issues grounded in day-to-day realities."
Gov. Ted Kulongoski, who has steadfastly attended the funerals of Oregon soldiers killed in Iraq, is now faced with sending 3,000 members of the Oregon National Guard back to Iraq in July.

The Gamble: General David Petraeus and the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006-2008, by Thomas Ricks

Kulongoski's recommendation suggests the governor is not overly optimistic about the future of Iraq given U.S. involvement there. The Gamble, published in February, is a follow-up to Ricks' previous book, Fiasco. The latest from the Washington Post reporter recounts the implementation of Gen. David Petraeus' "surge," which some have considered a success. But the book ends on a down note, suggesting that failure in Iraq could produce a leader there who will make Saddam Hussein look good by comparison. "There will be another Saddam Hussein," Kulongoski predicts, according to a spokeswoman for the governor.

U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) is a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

"Whether public statements regarding Iraq by U.S. government officials were substantiated by intelligence information," co-written by Wyden staffer John Dickas of Beaverton (pdf).

In keeping with his wonkish persona, Wyden's recommendation isn't a trade book. And Wyden—whose wife, Nancy, is co-owner of the famous Strand Bookstore in New York City's Greenwich Village—admits his staffer's work is unlikely to be a "bestseller at Powell's" since it's an intelligence report first issued in June 2008. But the report is, nonetheless, the definitive look at how senior Bush administration officials—including then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld—misrepresented early intelligence reports on Iraq. As the war progressed and as those early lies unraveled, members of Bush's team often confused the topic by blaming the quality of the intelligence for their misstatements, saying the intelligence was faulty. The report matches statements from public officials to the available intelligence at the time to set the record straight and show how "senior government officials exaggerated the facts in order to lead our country into war," Wyden says.

WWeek 2015