Download or read book Learning from Iraq written by Stuart W. Bowen, Jr. and published by . This book was released on 2013-04-06 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report culminates the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction’s (SIGIR's) nine-year mission overseeing Iraq's reconstruction. It recapitulates what the reconstruction program accomplished and what SIGIR found in the interstices, and also captures the effects of the rebuilding program as derived from 44 interviews with the recipients (the Iraqi leadership), the executors (U.S. senior leaders), and the providers (congressional members). These interviews provide a picture of the largest stabilization and reconstruction operation ever undertaken by the U.S. (until recently overtaken by Afghanistan). The report reveals countless details about the use of more than $60 billion in taxpayer dollars to support programs and projects in Iraq. It articulates numerous lessons derived from SIGIR's 220 audits and 170 inspections and lists the varying consequences meted out from the 82 convictions achieved through SIGIR’s investigations. The report concludes that not enough was accomplished in Iraq for the amount of funds spent. Figures and tables.
Download or read book The Iraq Study Group Report written by Iraq Study Group (U.S.) and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2006-12-06 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents the findings of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, which was formed in 2006 to examine the situation in Iraq and offer suggestions for the American military's future involvement in the region.
Download or read book Status of Recommendations Made by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction to the Department of Defense electronic Resource written by CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2018-07-16 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Status of recommendations made by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction to the Department of Defense [electronic resource].
Download or read book The Afghanistan Papers written by Craig Whitlock and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2022-08-30 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Washington Post Best Book of 2021 The #1 New York Times bestselling investigative story of how three successive presidents and their military commanders deceived the public year after year about America’s longest war, foreshadowing the Taliban’s recapture of Afghanistan, by Washington Post reporter and three-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Craig Whitlock. Unlike the wars in Vietnam and Iraq, the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 had near-unanimous public support. At first, the goals were straightforward and clear: defeat al-Qaeda and prevent a repeat of 9/11. Yet soon after the United States and its allies removed the Taliban from power, the mission veered off course and US officials lost sight of their original objectives. Distracted by the war in Iraq, the US military become mired in an unwinnable guerrilla conflict in a country it did not understand. But no president wanted to admit failure, especially in a war that began as a just cause. Instead, the Bush, Obama, and Trump administrations sent more and more troops to Afghanistan and repeatedly said they were making progress, even though they knew there was no realistic prospect for an outright victory. Just as the Pentagon Papers changed the public’s understanding of Vietnam, The Afghanistan Papers contains “fast-paced and vivid” (The New York Times Book Review) revelation after revelation from people who played a direct role in the war from leaders in the White House and the Pentagon to soldiers and aid workers on the front lines. In unvarnished language, they admit that the US government’s strategies were a mess, that the nation-building project was a colossal failure, and that drugs and corruption gained a stranglehold over their allies in the Afghan government. All told, the account is based on interviews with more than 1,000 people who knew that the US government was presenting a distorted, and sometimes entirely fabricated, version of the facts on the ground. Documents unearthed by The Washington Post reveal that President Bush didn’t know the name of his Afghanistan war commander—and didn’t want to meet with him. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld admitted that he had “no visibility into who the bad guys are.” His successor, Robert Gates, said: “We didn’t know jack shit about al-Qaeda.” The Afghanistan Papers is a “searing indictment of the deceit, blunders, and hubris of senior military and civilian officials” (Tom Bowman, NRP Pentagon Correspondent) that will supercharge a long-overdue reckoning over what went wrong and forever change the way the conflict is remembered.
Download or read book Fuel on the Fire written by Greg Muttitt and published by New Press, The. This book was released on 2012-06-12 with total page 433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The departure of the last U.S. troops from Iraq at the end of 2011 left a broken country and a host of unanswered questions. What was the war really about? Why and how did the occupation drag on for nearly nine years, while most Iraqis, Britons, and Americans desperately wanted it to end? And why did the troops have to leave? Now, in a gripping account of the war that dominated U.S. foreign policy over the last decade, investigative journalist Greg Muttitt takes us behind the scenes to answer some of these questions and reveals the heretofore-untold story of the oil politics that played out through the occupation of Iraq. Drawing upon hundreds of unreleased government documents and extensive interviews with senior American, British, and Iraqi officials, Muttitt exposes the plans and preparations that were in place to shape policies in favor of American and British energy interests. We follow him through a labyrinth of clandestine meetings, reneged promises, and abuses of power; we also see how Iraqis struggled for their own say in their future, in spite of their dysfunctional government and rising levels of violence. Through their stories, we begin to see a very different Iraq from the one our politicians have told us about. In light of the Arab revolutions, the war in Libya, and renewed threats against Iran, Fuel on the Fire provides a vital guide to the lessons from Iraq and of the global consequences of America's persistent oil addiction.
Download or read book Inspector General Reform Act of 2008 written by United States and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 2 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
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 Iraq Reconstruction written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book We Meant Well written by Peter Van Buren and published by Metropolitan Books. This book was released on 2011-09-27 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "One diplomat's 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 A work of "scathing, gallows humor" (The Boston Globe), We Meant Well is a tragicomic voyage of ineptitude and corruption that leaves its writer—and readers—appalled and disillusioned, but wiser. Charged with rebuilding Iraq, would you spend taxpayer money on a sports mural in Baghdad's 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 cafés 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 defeat terrorism and win over Iraqis by reconstructing the world we had just destroyed. Leading a State Department Provincial Reconstruction Team on its quixotic mission, Van Buren details, with laser-like irony, his yearlong encounter with pointless projects, bureaucratic fumbling, overwhelmed soldiers, and oblivious administrators secluded in the world's largest embassy, who fail to realize that you can't rebuild a country without first picking up the trash.
Download or read book Invisible Wounds of War written by Marguerite Guzman Bouvard and published by Prometheus Books. This book was released on 2012-07-24 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There’s no real homecoming for many of our veterans returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They may go through the motions of daily life in their hometowns, but the terrible sights and sounds of war are still fresh in their minds. This empathic, inside look into the lives of our combat veterans reveals the lingering impact that the longest wars in our nation’s history continue to have on far too many of our finest young people. Basing her account on numerous interviews with veterans and their families, the author examines the factors that have made these recent conflicts especially trying. A major focus of the book is the extreme duress that is a daily part of a soldier’s life in combat zones with no clear frontlines or perimeters. Having to cope with unrecognizable enemies in the midst of civilian populations and attacks from hidden weapons like improvised explosive devices exacts a heavy toll. Compounding the problem is the all-volunteer nature of our armed forces, which often demands multiple deployments of enlistees. This results in frequent cases of post-traumatic stress disorder and families disrupted by the long absence of one and sometimes both parents. The author also discusses the lack of connectedness between civilian society and military personnel, leading to inadequate healthcare for many veterans. This deficiency has been highlighted by the urgent need to treat traumatic brain injuries in survivors of explosions and the high veteran suicide rate. Bouvard concludes on a positive note by discussing some of the surprising and encouraging ways that the chasm between civilian and military life is being bridged to help reintegrate our returning soldiers. For veterans, their families, and especially for civilians unaware of how much our soldiers have endured, The Invisible Wounds of War is important reading.
Download or read book U S Counternarcotics Strategy for Afghanistan written by and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 86 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Rebuilding Iraq written by Committee of Government Reform and published by Cosimo, Inc.. This book was released on 2005-11-01 with total page 126 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We know more today.about how the Administration has mismanaged the contracts to reconstruct Iraq. And what we have learned shows that the problems are even worse than we thought. All.perspectives point to the same conclusion: Halliburton is gouging the taxpayer and the Bush Administration doesn't seem to care.-Statement of Rep. Henry A. Waxman, U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Government ReformREBUILDING IRAQ: U.S. Mismanagement in the Middle East discussed the oversight of the Development Fund for Iraq funds through the national budgetary process. Originally issued in late January 2005 by the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, the main objective of this audit was to determine whether the Coalition's Provisional Authority (CPA) implemented adequate procedures for the recording, reviewing and reporting disbursements for the reconstruction of Iraq. The results of the audit contain detailed information relating to managerial, financial, and contract controls as well as formal recommendations about the oversight of the Development Fund for Iraq funds.Organized chronologically from early December 2004 through end of July 2005, additional documents contained in this report include numerous Facts Sheets on the value of Halliburton contracts including a comprehensive overview of the total value these contracts as well as information pointing to serious problems from severe contract abuses to the mismanagement of funds in Iraq.
Download or read book Hard Lessons written by United States. Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: rebuilding program achieve its objectives? Was the money provided well-spent or wasted? What lessons have we learned from the experience? Hard Lessons: The Iraq Reconstruction Experience, a report from the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR), answers these and other important questions by presenting a comprehensive history of the U.S. program, chiefly derived from SIGIR's body of extensive oversight work in Iraq, hundreds of interviews with key figures involved with the reconstruction program, and thousands of documents evidencing the reconstruction work that was-or was not-done. The report examines the limited pre-war planning for reconstruction, the shift from a large infrastructure program to a more community-based one, and the success of the "Surge" in 2007 and beyond. Hard Lessons concludes that the U.S. government did not have the structure or resources in place to execute the mammoth relief and reconstruction plan it took on in 2003.
Download or read book Iraq written by Gustavo D. Ryder and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Regarding U.S. relief and reconstruction plans, programs, and operations in Iraq, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) provides independent and objective: oversight and review through comprehensive audits, inspections, and investigations; advice and recommendations on policies to promote economy, efficiency, and effectiveness; prevention, detection, and deterrence of fraud, waste, and abuse; and information and analysis to the Congress, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, and the American people. This book provides a review of SIGIR's history, delving into the perennial challenges and various successes in Iraq and examines events in Iraq this last quarter marked by a sharp rise in violence. Final assessments of the Special Inspector General and post-U.S. withdrawal developments are discussed
Download or read book Iraq written by Gustavo D. Ryder and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Regarding U.S. relief and reconstruction plans, programs, and operations in Iraq, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) provides independent and objective: oversight and review through comprehensive audits, inspections, and investigations; advice and recommendations on policies to promote economy, efficiency, and effectiveness; prevention, detection, and deterrence of fraud, waste, and abuse; and information and analysis to the Congress, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, and the American people. This book provides a review of SIGIRs history, delving into the perennial challenges and various successes in Iraq and examines events in Iraq this last quarter marked by a sharp rise in violence.
Download or read book Reconstructing Iraq s Budgetary Institutions written by James D. Savage and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2013 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Consistent with the literature on state building, failed states, peacekeeping and foreign assistance, this book argues that budgeting is a core state activity necessary for the operation of a functional government. Employing a historical institutionalist approach, this book first explores the Ottoman, British and Ba'athist origins of Iraq's budgetary institutions. The book next examines American pre-war planning, the Coalition Provisional Authority's rule-making and budgeting following the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and the mixed success of the Coalition's capacity-building programs initiated throughout the occupation. This book sheds light on the problem of 'outsiders' building states, contributes to a more comprehensive evaluation of the Coalition in Iraq, addresses the question of why Iraqis took ownership of some Coalition-generated institutions, and helps explain the nature of institutional change.
Download or read book Counternarcotics written by CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2018-08-20 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Counternarcotics : lessons from the U.S. experience in Afghanistan.
