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Military Review: We Meant Well
Military Review, the professional journal of the U.S. Army, recently ran a review (p. 92) of We Meant Well.The review found both some good and some, er, less than good:
We Meant Well contains valuable lessons for leaders both military and civilian. Among its revelations, it raises ethical questions concerning the complexities of reconstruction in Iraq, and it does so from the perspective of an embedded provincial reconstruction team (PRT) leader. Van Buren’s goal is to inform readers of flaws in our approach to the reconstruction of post-war Iraq. Many portions of his book do just that. However, readers should be aware that the book seems tendentious in places where the author delivers sarcastic, acerbic, and apparently vengeful observations. The author is humorous and articulate, and he delivers several useful discussions informing potential leaders of pitfalls in the vital work of reconstruction. This book can inspire reflection on how to avoid similar mistakes in the future.
Most important, this review took things seriously. While all State could do was lob odd personal attacks, the military from the beginning was willing to listen and parse out what was worth paying attention to. Unlike State, which lacks a single introspective gene, the military is all about lessons learned. This is a real strength at the mid-levels, though it tends to fade the higher in rank you go, at least outwardly.
The thing which I am most proud of is that I have been able to contribute to, if not help define, the narrative on the civilian side of reconstruction. I have gotten the occasional email from grad students working in the field, asking for more serious info on the projects discussed in We Meant Well. They all decry the lack of information and non-propaganda from the State-side.
The great weakness in the State Department is an almost pathological unwillingness to look at itself. In its hyper-personal relationship focused environment, only success is allowed to be discussed inside Foggy Bottom. There are of course the occasional lessons learned exercises for appearances’ sake, but these typically soft-pedal or ignore any real need for change and simply end up as back door conclusions on the need for more money and resources.
Copyright © 2013. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. The views expressed here are solely those of the author(s) in their private capacity and do not in any way represent the views of the Department of State, the Department of Defense or any other entity of the US Government. The Department of State does not approve, endorse or authorize this blog or book. Follow us on Twitter!
The Best Criticism I Have Ever Received
You know how deep inside your skull you know what your own weaknesses are, and you try and deny them sometimes, and mostly try to hide them from people not sharp enough to see them themselves? And then randomly in an email comes everything you know about yourself laid out. Here’s that email, as I received it, from someone who had read my book:
Thank you for an amazing book. I believe you, and I have yet to hear anyone even try to refute your revelations. I think everyone in Congress should be required to read your book. I went to your website hoping to thank you there, but what I found there made me feel bad. Taking potshots at Hillary Clinton dancing with South Africans doesn’t inspire me, even if your interpretation of State Department decorum is valid.
I’m just giving you a respectful heads up: when we are faced with endless negativity, we the people tend to retreat into our apathy and stop being involved. You have a very important message for the American public, and the world. Stick with that strong message—the war in Iraq is rife with pathetic failure and corruption, ignorance and futility.
You may be right to call everyone on the carpet from the top down, but historically that doesn’t work to make change. You cannot simultaneously fix and take down existing governmental structures. I sympathize with your frustration, change takes a long time. That process is painfully slow.
I just hope you can pursue your message without polluting your reputation into something most people feel uncomfortable siding with. You have truth on your side, so stick with that truth, and keep the scope narrow enough for us to achieve changes.
My own father went the route you are now seemingly going: he found gross corruption in another area of Government, and when Congress refused to act on his facts and information, my Dad devolved into inflammatory bulletins and letters, because he just couldn’t believe how little people cared about truth, and how little Congress would do to fix the egregious problems. I think he could have made more serious change if he had stayed the course of civil and calm restatements of the facts—just keep telling it like it is, over and over, and don’t react, just keep stating the truth, and never ever take any of it personally. Just my opinion.
I believed in my father, and I saw his tactics fail, leaving us with the same corruption we’ve always had. He died in 2004, and his attempts to fix the system he had found broken also died with him. That breaks my heart. The problem persists. But, he was a fighter who inspired me to hope for better, to expect better of our people and our government.
If your blog and book are dismissed as “angry crock pot” we will all lose.
Copyright © 2013. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. The views expressed here are solely those of the author(s) in their private capacity and do not in any way represent the views of the Department of State, the Department of Defense or any other entity of the US Government. The Department of State does not approve, endorse or authorize this blog or book. Follow us on Twitter!
We Meant Well Now in Paperback!
With thanks to the Department of State, whose near-constant unconstitutional harassment of me over the past year has helped draw attention to my book, We Meant Well is now available in paperback (as well as Kindle, Nook and other e-formats).
The paperback edition has a slightly tweaked introduction to reflect the events of the past few months but otherwise is guaranteed to contain 100% of the snark, pathos and sarcasm of the original edition. In response to the almost seven emails from fans, all profanity has been preserved and reused in the new edition.
Copyright © 2013. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. The views expressed here are solely those of the author(s) in their private capacity and do not in any way represent the views of the Department of State, the Department of Defense or any other entity of the US Government. The Department of State does not approve, endorse or authorize this blog or book. Follow us on Twitter!
Imperial Reconstruction and Its Discontents
If you missed my recent article “How Not to Reconstruct Iraq, Afghanistan — or America A Guide to Disaster at Home and Abroad,” it is available at the following sites, below.Please note that despite the extensive coverage of my article, including CBS, the article was not included in the daily State Department web summary. The primary site, TomDispatch.com, is still electronically blocked on all State Department computers for whatever the hell “Wikileaks Content” is. I am certain The Onion regrets the error.
Cost of War (Robert Greenwald)
Copyright © 2013. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. The views expressed here are solely those of the author(s) in their private capacity and do not in any way represent the views of the Department of State, the Department of Defense or any other entity of the US Government. The Department of State does not approve, endorse or authorize this blog or book. Follow us on Twitter!
Mini-Review: We Meant Well
The Brattleboro, Vermont Reformer offers a mini-review of We Meant Well:
Mordant humor, first person account of the “reconstruction.” If you have only one book about the Iraq war, this should be the one.
Read the entire article online at the Reformer.
Copyright © 2013. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. The views expressed here are solely those of the author(s) in their private capacity and do not in any way represent the views of the Department of State, the Department of Defense or any other entity of the US Government. The Department of State does not approve, endorse or authorize this blog or book. Follow us on Twitter!
We Meant Well Excerpt Listed by FP as “Defining the Conflict”
Foreign Policy listed their excerpt from We Meant Well as one of the articles “that defined the conflict.”The list is in chronological order, so my piece is at the very end.
The end… or is it?
Here is a list of top stories now on an English-language Iraqi news site:
2 Two wounded in Falluja
12/16/2011 7:53 PM2 Qaeda leaders arrested in Wassit
12/16/2011 7:51 PMOrganized Mafia are in prisoners’ fleeing operations
12/16/2011 5:01 PMImam Ali military base handed over to Iraq
12/16/2011 3:09 PMIraq’s Prime Minister back from visit to United States
12/15/2011 1:52 PMCop killed in sticky bomb explosion in Falluja
12/4/2011 10:30 PMDuhuk events are negative indications for Christians, Assyrian Movement
12/5/2011 12:48 AM11 civilians, 3 Anti-Revolt elements, injured in Zakhu, north Iraq in attack alcohol shop
12/3/2011 12:03 PMUS forces hand over Victory Base to Iraqi forces
12/3/2011 1:31 PM1 killed, 12 injured in 3 Kirkuk blasts
12/3/2011 1:30 PM3 armed men arrested while attacked Sahwa forces
12/3/2011 1:56 PM2 killed in south Mosul
12/3/2011 6:43 PMCivilian and armed gunman killed inMosul
12/4/2011 10:55 PMSecond explosion rocks Hilla, security sources
12/5/2011 8:44 PM2 kidnapped university professors freed
12/6/2011 1:06 PMKurdistan Asayish (security) element injured in Mosul attack
12/6/2011 1:07 PMPartial curfew in Ninewa province
12/6/2011 6:03 PMCivilian killed, 8 injured in Kirkuk
12/6/2011 6:30 PMYep, nothing to see here folks. Onward to Iran!
Copyright © 2013. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. The views expressed here are solely those of the author(s) in their private capacity and do not in any way represent the views of the Department of State, the Department of Defense or any other entity of the US Government. The Department of State does not approve, endorse or authorize this blog or book. Follow us on Twitter!
Book Reviews for We Meant Well
Not an exercise in humility by any means, but as we look into new printings of the book, it was time to collect some of the nice things people have said about We Meant Well.
Take a look at some of the comments over on the Reviews page.
Copyright © 2013. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. The views expressed here are solely those of the author(s) in their private capacity and do not in any way represent the views of the Department of State, the Department of Defense or any other entity of the US Government. The Department of State does not approve, endorse or authorize this blog or book. Follow us on Twitter!
Kirkus Reviews: We Meant Well Among Top Non-Fiction for 2011
Kirkus Reviews was nice enough to call out We Meant Well as one of the top non-fiction titles of 2011. You can read their earlier full review as well.
The Boston Globe also included We Meant Well in an end of the year/war Iraq-book roundup.
And the Kansas City Star featured the book in its own Best of 2011.
Copyright © 2013. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. The views expressed here are solely those of the author(s) in their private capacity and do not in any way represent the views of the Department of State, the Department of Defense or any other entity of the US Government. The Department of State does not approve, endorse or authorize this blog or book. Follow us on Twitter!
We Meant Well Featured on Kansas City Star’s Top 100 for 2011
I was honored to learn that We Meant Well was featured on the Kansas City Star’s list of the Top 100 books for 2011. The Star wrote that over all:
These are the books — novels, works of nonfiction, children’s titles and more — that made the most impression on our contributing reviewers and other professionals who do not fear to acknowledge that they spend a good amount of time consorting with the ideas, experience and escape that can still be found as fields of ink on paper and bound between two covers.
Specifically about my book, the Star said:
A foreign service officer exposes the truth about American aid to Iraq, using satire, irony and sometimes laugh-out-loud humor to convey grim reality.
See if your own favorites made the top 100, online now.
Copyright © 2013. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. The views expressed here are solely those of the author(s) in their private capacity and do not in any way represent the views of the Department of State, the Department of Defense or any other entity of the US Government. The Department of State does not approve, endorse or authorize this blog or book. Follow us on Twitter!
Some Recent Articles
Thanks to the following outlets for publishing excerpts from my book this week!
Copyright © 2013. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. The views expressed here are solely those of the author(s) in their private capacity and do not in any way represent the views of the Department of State, the Department of Defense or any other entity of the US Government. The Department of State does not approve, endorse or authorize this blog or book. Follow us on Twitter!
New Review: History News Network
Our thanks to the History News Network at George Mason University for a very nice review of the book. Follow the link to read what they thought of WE MEANT WELL.
Here’s one excerpt to get you started:
We Meant Well, both title and concept, is how pro-war policymakers and pundits rationalized the bloodshed and chaos by doing good things for post-Saddam Iraqis. Largely ignorant of Iraq’s history, culture, and language, Washington’s elite foreign policy circles actually believed the con men and living room warriors who conjured up visions of WMDs and of spreading America’s economic empire by war and thereby transforming the country into a fair and open society. Van Buren says he is currently being investigated by the State Department; his supervisor was asked to tell him—“just like a gangster movie”—that a “senior Department person” was angry at the publication of this book and had opened an investigation.
Copyright © 2013. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. The views expressed here are solely those of the author(s) in their private capacity and do not in any way represent the views of the Department of State, the Department of Defense or any other entity of the US Government. The Department of State does not approve, endorse or authorize this blog or book. Follow us on Twitter!
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