The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq

<p><p>Named one of the Best Books of 2005 by <i>The New York Times</i>, <i>The Washington Post Book World</i>, <i>The Boston Globe</i>, <i>The Chicago Tribune</i>, <i>The</i> <i>San Francisco Chronicle Book Review</i>, <i>The Los Angeles Times Book Review</i>, <i>The New York Times Book Review</i>, <i>USA Today</i>, <i>Time</i>, and <i>New York </i>magazine.<p><i>The Assassins' Gate&#58; America in Iraq </i>recounts how the United States set about changing the history of the Middle East and became ensnared in a guerrilla war in Iraq. It brings to life the people and ideas that created the Bush administration's war policy and led America to the Assassins' Gate--the main point of entry into the American zone in Baghdad. <br><i></i> <br><i>The Assassins' Gate </i>also describes the place of the war in American life&#58; the ideological battles in Washington that led to chaos in Iraq, the ordeal of a fallen soldier 's family, and the political culture of a country too bitterly polarized to realize such a vast and morally complex undertaking. George Packer's best-selling first-person narrative combines the scope of an epic history with the depth and intimacy of a novel, creating a masterful account of America's most controversial foreign venture since Vietnam.<p></p> <h3>The New York Times - Michiko Kakutani</h3> <p>In his authoritative and tough-minded new book&#8230;the New Yorker writer George Packer reminds us that the decision of the Bush administration to go to war against Iraq and its increasingly embattled handling of the occupation were both predicated upon large, abstract ideas about the role of America in the post-cold war world&#8230;What <i>The Assassins' Gate</i> may lack in freshness&#8230;is more than made up for by its wide-angled, overarching take on the Iraq war and Mr. Packer's lucid ability to pull together information from earlier books and integrate it with his own reporting from Washington and Iraq.</p>