Download or read book Muqtada Al Sadr and the Shia Insurgency in Iraq written by Patrick Cockburn and published by Faber & Faber. This book was released on 2009 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A portrait of the formidable Shiite figure who has been predicted to be a future leader in Iraq, this book describes his rise from a resistance fighter, the assassinations of his family members, and his frequent confrontations with the American military.
Download or read book Muqtada Al Sadr and the Fall of Iraq written by Patrick Cockburn and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first book about Muqtada al Sadr, the most important political figure in post-occupation Iraq. Muqtada has become the kingmaker of Iraq and a force that is indispensable to any Iraqi government: the Mehdi Army, his devoted militia, now rules half of Baghdad. Far from being the 'firebrand cleric' portrayed in the western media, he is an astute and experienced politician who struggles to lead an anarchic mass movement that he only half controls. In a compelling narrative, award-winning war correspondent Patrick Cockburn charts the rise of Muqtada, and has written an essential book for our understanding of Iraq's future. Cockburn has reported from Iraq since 1977, often at great personal risk, and Muqtada al Sadr and the Fall of Iraq combines first hand accounts of his investigations with vivid and dismaying descriptions of the civil war that is tearing the country apart.
Download or read book Muqtada Al Sadr and the Battle for the Future of Iraq written by Patrick Cockburn and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2008-10-21 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Time magazine listed him as one of its "100 People Who Shape Our World." Newsweek featured him on its cover under the headline "How Al-Sadr May Control U.S. Fate in Iraq." Paul Bremer denounced him as a "Bolshevik Islamist" and ordered that he be captured "dead or alive." Who is Muqtada al-Sadr, and why is he so vital to the future of Iraq and, arguably, the entire Middle East? In this compellingly readable account, prize-winning journalist Patrick Cockburn tells the story of Muqtada's rise to become the leader of Iraq's poor Shi'ites and the resistance to the occupation. Cockburn looks at the killings by Saddam's executioners and hit men of the young cleric's father, two brothers, and father-in-law; his leadership of the seventy-thousand-strong Mehdi Army; the fierce rivalries between him and other Shia religious leaders; his complex relationship with the Iraqi government; and his frequent confrontations with the American military, including battles that took place in Najaf in 2004. The portrait that emerges is of a complex man and a sophisticated politician, who engages with religious and nationalist aspirations in a manner unlike any other Iraqi leader. Cockburn, who was among the very few Western journalists to remain in Baghdad during the Gulf War and has been an intrepid reporter of Iraq ever since, draws on his extensive firsthand experience in the country to produce a book that is richly interwoven with the voices of Iraqis themselves. His personal encounters with the Mehdi Army include a tense occasion when he was nearly killed at a roadblock outside the city of Kufa. Though it often reads like an adventure story, Muqtada is also a work of painstaking research and measured analysis that leads to a deeper understanding both of one of the most critical conflicts in the world today and of the man who may well be a decisive voice in determining the future of Iraq when the Americans eventually leave.
Download or read book US Withdrawal written by Nadhim al-Abadi and published by . This book was released on 2017-08-30 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Patrick Cockburn is an important and well-informed journalist, with a keen interest in events in Iraq since 1980. His book "Muqtada al-Sadr and the Fall of Iraq" is crucial for understanding the recent political equations governing Iraq, after the US invasion of 2003.He has been able to diagnose the implications for Iraq's future, of the newly popular force. Cockburn documented the socio-political conditions and day-to-day events on the ground in Iraq for about 30 years, which have given rise to the young cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, and his entry into the global limelight. The author's understanding is that Cockburn has succeeded in documenting events with a highly professional and solid craftsmanship, away from the ideological backgrounds of Muqtada al-Sadr. So, if you're looking for a thematic biography of the rebel al-Sadr, then you'll be disappointed, since the understanding of Muqtada's personality, intentions as well as documentation of the man's rapid learning curve and steadily sharpened political nature from the beginnings of the occupation, aren't substantively addressed in his book. So, some readers could find themselves disappointed, because they may find that although events are documented professionally, but it is done without the intellectual and ideological background to explain the reasons for these events. One can't really blame Cockburn, because of the difficulty of direct contact with Muqtada himself, during those years, and the lack of access to the primary source material on his principles, his personal opinions and sentiments.The book contains a vision very close to muqtada al-sadr's. The author has worked with him, observed the iraqi events since 1970, understood the intellectual and ideological background, explained the reason of these events, and tried to link the movement of muqtada al-sadr on the one hand with the activity of che guevara. Guevara is known to the reader through the EU and the US as expressing the modern leftist line, which faced imperialism and injustice, and sacrificed for humanity and freedom. Further, the author tries to explain the religious behavior of Muqtada al-Sadr according to Christian concepts, as understood by readers in Europe and America.
Download or read book Muqtada written by Patrick Cockburn and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2008-04-08 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Time magazine listed him as one of its "100 People Who Shape Our World." Newsweek featured him on its cover under the headline "How Al-Sadr May Control U.S. Fate in Iraq." Paul Bremer denounced him as a "Bolshevik Islamist" and ordered that he be captured "dead or alive." Who is Muqtada al-Sadr, and why is he so vital to the future of Iraq and, arguably, the entire Middle East? In this compellingly readable account, prize-winning journalist Patrick Cockburn tells the story of Muqtada's rise to become the leader of Iraq's poor Shi'ites and the resistance to the occupation. Cockburn looks at the killings by Saddam's executioners and hit men of the young cleric's father, two brothers, and father-in-law; his leadership of the seventy-thousand-strong Mehdi Army; the fierce rivalries between him and other Shia religious leaders; his complex relationship with the Iraqi government; and his frequent confrontations with the American military, including battles that took place in Najaf in 2004. The portrait that emerges is of a complex man and a sophisticated politician, who engages with religious and nationalist aspirations in a manner unlike any other Iraqi leader. Cockburn, who was among the very few Western journalists to remain in Baghdad during the Gulf War and has been an intrepid reporter of Iraq ever since, draws on his extensive firsthand experience in the country to produce a book that is richly interwoven with the voices of Iraqis themselves. His personal encounters with the Mehdi Army include a tense occasion when he was nearly killed at a roadblock outside the city of Kufa. Though it often reads like an adventure story, Muqtada is also a work of painstaking research and measured analysis that leads to a deeper understanding both of one of the most critical conflicts in the world today and of the man who may well be a decisive voice in determining the future of Iraq when the Americans eventually leave.
Download or read book The Story of Kingmaker written by Nadhim al-Abadi and published by . This book was released on 2017-08-30 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Muqtada al-Sadr has used strange and weird strategies in the war against America since 2003. So that he could make a shift at the level of the American mood and decision, in the administration and the army and even in the American people themselves. Until the imposition of the withdrawal from Iraq in 2011, as demanded. Kokburn, Harold North, Duck Camp, and many others have written about the US war in Iraq and Muqtada al-Sadr. But what distinguishes this book are those hidden issues and strange details, on the other side of the battle, which was abandoned by the global media and the Western journalists, and presented by this author throughout his pages. As an Iraqi, and working with Muqtada al-Sadr, close to the arena of events and its scenes. He has actually met Muqtada al-Sadr, having a close sight on his words and actions closely and accurately, so you will find details and things that the American and European authors could not discover.I tried to making this book to pleasing to the intellectual and academic readers, especially readers of the author Kokburn. In addition to that of the ordinary reader, because the events of Iraq and the character of Moqtada al-Sadr are exactly what the media is currently discussing, now and for years to come. In addition, the interest of the research centers, universities and official libraries and political science students in Iraqi events and the Sadrist movement is attributed to its political importance in Iraqi reality.
Download or read book Counterinsurgency in Iraq 2003 2006 written by Bruce R. Pirnie and published by Rand Corporation. This book was released on 2008-01-25 with total page 135 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines the deleterious effects of the U.S. failure to focus on protecting the Iraqi population for most of the military campaign in Iraq and analyzes the failure of a technologically driven counterinsurgency (COIN) approach. It outlines strategic considerations relative to COIN; presents an overview of the conflict in Iraq; describes implications for future operations; and offers recommendations to improve the U.S. capability to conduct COIN.
Download or read book My Year in Iraq written by L. Paul Bremer and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2006-01-09 with total page 433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "BAGHDAD WAS BURNING." With these words, Ambassador L. Paul "Jerry" Bremer begins his gripping memoir of fourteen danger-filled months as America's proconsul in Iraq. My Year in Iraq is the only senior insider's perspective on the crucial period following the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime. In vivid, dramatic detail, Bremer reveals the previously hidden struggles among Iraqi politicians and America's leaders, taking us from the ancient lanes in the holy city of Najaf to the White House Situation Room and the Pentagon E-Ring. His memoir carries the reader behind closed doors in Baghdad during hammer-and-tongs negotiations with emerging Iraqi leaders as they struggle to forge the democratic institutions vital to Iraq's future of hope. He describes his private meetings with President Bush and his admiration for the president's firm wartime leadership. And we witness heated sessions among members of America's National Security Council -- George Bush, Dick Cheney, Colin Powell, Donald Rumsfeld, and Condoleezza Rice -- as Bremer labors to realize the vision he and President Bush share of a free and democratic New Iraq. He admires the selfless and courageous work of thousands of American servicemen and -women and civilians in Iraq. The flames Bremer describes on arriving in Baghdad were from fires started by looters. One of his first acts was to request an additional 4,000 Military Police to help restore order in the streets. For most of the next year, as the insurgency spread, Bremer resisted efforts by generals and senior Defense Department civilians to reduce American troop strength prematurely, replacing our forces with ill-trained, poorly led Iraqi police and soldiers. And he lays to rest the myth that the Coalition disbanded Saddam's army, a force comprised of Shiite draftees who had deserted and refused to serve under their former Sunni officers. Bremer also describes his frustration with intelligence operations that concentrated on the search for weapons of mass destruction while the insurgency gathered strength. Bremer faced daunting problems working with Iraq's traumatized and divided population to find a path to a responsible and representative government. The Shia Arabs, the country's long-repressed majority, deeply distrusted the Sunni Arab minority who had held power for centuries and had controlled the detested Baath Party. Iraq's non-Arab Kurds teetered on the brink of secession when Bremer arrived. He had to find Sunnis willing to participate in the new political order. Some in the U.S. government pushed for what Bremer would come to call a cut-and-run policy that would have quickly delivered governance of Iraq to a handful of unrepresentative anti-Saddam exiles. Bremer vigorously resisted this ill-conceived course. He takes the reader inside marathon negotiations as he and his team shepherded Iraq's new leaders to write an interim constitution with guarantees for individual and minority rights unprecedented in the region. My Year in Iraq is required reading for all those interested in the real story of how America responded to its gravest recent overseas crisis.
Download or read book The Battle of An Najaf written by Francis Xavier Kozlowski and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the Book's Context: This is a "battle study" written purposely from the perspective of the Marines, soldiers, and sailors who fought at an-Najaf in August 2004. Some context is needed to fit these events within the evolution of the campaigning in Iraq in 2004. The Americans deployed to al-Anbar and an-Najaf Provinces, faced a variety of threats as Iraq attempted to again govern itself. Threats were from disparate sources, including Sunni fighters in Fallujah and Shi'a fighters in Najaf. Behind each was the possibility of al-Qaeda in Iraq or criminal exploitation of any disruption of Coalition efforts to establish responsible Iraqi Government. This complexity of threats did not lend itself to easy solutions. In March 2004, Lieutenant General James T Conway's I Marine Expeditionary Force was faced with an outbreak of Sunni insurgency in Fallujah. At the same time, a Shi's uprising took place across Iraq, including Baghdad, Najaf, an-Nasiriyah, al-Kut, al-Amarah, and Kirkuk. The fighting spread to Karbala, Hillah, and Basrah with attacks on Iraqi and Coalition outposts. This fighting dropped off in June with establishment of Iraqi Interim Government of Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, but the menace of further violence remained.
Download or read book What I Heard About Iraq written by Eliot Weinberger and published by Verso Books. This book was released on 2020-05-05 with total page 58 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Iraq War has unleashed such a torrent of opinion - impassioned polemic, neo-con apologia, world-weary cynicism - that it feels like the important truths are being lost in a media feeding-frenzy. Eliot Weinberger eschews the rehtoric of the soapbox in an extraordinary montage of facts, sound bites and testimonies. He assembles an uncompromising and blackly comic narrative, which permits the voices of the war to speak for themselves, and allows the protagonists to damn themselves in their own words. This pocket-sized volume is vast in scope, a work unlike any other you have read on Iraq, which finds an unexpected eloquence in its refusal to join in the facile grand-standing and selective amnesia of so much contemporary commentary.
Download or read book The Occupation written by Patrick Cockburn and published by Verso Books. This book was released on 2020-05-05 with total page 283 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In February 2003, Patrick Cockburn secretly crossed the Tigris river from Syria into Iraq just before the US/British invasion, and has covered the war ever since. In The Occupation, he provides a vivid and disturbing picture of a country in turmoil, and the dangers and privations endured by its people. The Occupation explores the mosaic of communities in Iraq, the US and Britain's failure to understand the country they were invading and how this led to fatal mistakes. Cockburn, who has been visiting Iraq since 1978, describes the disintegration of the country under the occupation. Travelling throughout Iraq, from the Kurdish north, to Baghdad, Falluja and Basra, he records the response of the country's population - Shia and Sunni, Arab and Kurd - to the invasion, the growth of the resistance and its transformation into a full-scale uprising. He explains why deepening religious and ethnic divisions drove the country towards civil war. Above all, Cockburn traces how the occupation's failure led to the collapse of the country, and the high price paid by Iraqis. He charts the impact of savage sectarian killings, rampant corruption and economic chaos on everyday life: from the near destruction of Baghdad's al-Mutanabi book market to the failure to supply electricity, water and, ironically, fuel to Iraq's population. The Occupation is a compelling portrait of a ravaged country, and the appalling consequences of imperial arrogance.
Download or read book Battle for the City of the Dead written by Dick Camp and published by Zenith Press. This book was released on 2011-03-28 with total page 319 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the spring and summer of 2004, Iraq was coming apart at the seams. Sectarian violence pitted Shiite against Sunni. American proconsul L. Paul Bremer had disbanded the Iraqi Army, placing disgruntled young men on the street without jobs or the prospect of getting one. Their anger developed into a full-blown insurgency fed by a relentless campaign by the clergy for jihad against the “occupation force.” In August, a Shiite cleric named Muqtada Al-Sadr called upon his thousands of armed followers, the Mahdi Militia, to resist the occupation. Fighting broke out in several locations, including the holy city of Najaf, the site of the largest Moslem cemetery in the world, and the Imam Ali Mosque. The U.S. forces fought in 120-degree heat through a tangle of crypts, mausoleums, and crumbling graves. The fight was brutal, pitting religious zealots against the highly motivated and disciplined U.S. Army and Marine Corps troops. It makes for a riveting account of Americans in battle.
Download or read book Muqtada written by Patrick Cockburn and published by Tantor Media Incorporated. This book was released on 2014-05-09 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From one of the bravest and most experienced correspondents in the Middle East, this is the first biography of the formidable Shiite resistance leader destined to shape the future of post-occupation Iraq. Unabridged. 8 CDs.
Download or read book What Kind of Liberation written by Nadje Sadig Al-Ali and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2009 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "There is something to learn, literally, on every page here."--Cynthia Enloe, from the foreword "This is a fluent and highly informed account of the women of Iraq during a time of ever increasing political turmoil, economic disaster and foreign invasion. It gives a fascinating insight into the way Iraqi society really works and is far superior in quality to most of what has been written about Iraq in war and peace."--Patrick Cockburn, author of Muqtada: Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shia Revival, and the Struggle for Iraq
Download or read book Fiasco written by Thomas E. Ricks and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2006-07-25 with total page 524 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize • One of the Washington Post Book World's 10 Best Books of the Year • Time's 10 Best Books of the Year • USA Today's Nonfiction Book of the Year • A New York Times Notable Book "Staggeringly vivid and persuasive . . . absolutely essential reading." —Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times "The best account yet of the entire war." —Vanity Fair The definitive account of the American military's tragic experience in Iraq Fiasco is a masterful reckoning with the planning and execution of the American military invasion and occupation of Iraq through mid-2006, now with a postscript on recent developments. Ricks draws on the exclusive cooperation of an extraordinary number of American personnel, including more than one hundred senior officers, and access to more than 30,000 pages of official documents, many of them never before made public. Tragically, it is an undeniable account—explosive, shocking, and authoritative—of unsurpassed tactical success combined with unsurpassed strategic failure that indicts some of America's most powerful and honored civilian and military leaders.
Download or read book Cowboys Over Iraq written by Jimmy Blackmon and published by Post Hill Press. This book was released on 2020-02-04 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “What does it take to fly and fight with America’s Air Cavalry? That’s the story of Cowboys Over Iraq. You’ll meet bold personalities right out of a Hollywood movie. You’ll be right there as Jimmy Blackmon and his fellow Cavalry troopers track down and tangle with determined foes. You’ll experience the highs of triumph and the lows of bitter loss. Most importantly, you’ll see how and why Jimmy Blackmon learned hard-won leadership and battle lessons in the deadly skies of Iraq. Strap in. Hang on. Get ready to go hunting with the Air Cav.” —Daniel P. Bolger, Lieutenant General, U.S. Army, Retired, Commander, 1st Cavalry Division 2008-2010 “A great read by an exceptional combat aviator, leader, and writer! Jimmy Blackmon captures brilliantly the enthralling story of the air cavalry unit that was the eyes and ears of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) during the fight to Baghdad and throughout the first year in Iraq – when I was privileged to command the division. He captures vividly, as well, the courage, skill, and feel for the battlefield of the gifted pilot and commander of the squadron, Lieutenant Colonel Steve Schiller, to whom we turned repeatedly when the missions were the toughest.” —General David Petraeus (U.S. Army, Ret.) commanded the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Multinational Force-Iraq, US Central Command, and coalition and U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
Download or read book Revolt on the Tigris written by Mark Etherington and published by C. HURST & CO. PUBLISHERS. This book was released on 2005 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This gritty and compelling firsthand account of post-conflict Iraq describes the turmoil visited on the country by outside intervention and the difficulties faced by the Coalition in fashioning a new political and civil apparatus."--BOOK JACKET.
