The Occupation: War and Resistance in Iraq

Barry Gewen

Patrick Cockburn, now a correspondent for The Independent of London…knows the Middle East well. He has reported from Tehran and Lebanon, lived in Israel, and been visiting Iraq since 1978. His eye for the telling detail lifts The Occupation above the usual journalist's account of the Iraq war.
—The New York Times

Library Journal

This is a lively and highly informative book on the American war in Iraq and the follies of occupation. Veteran journalist Cockburn (Middle East correspondent, the Independent) has been visiting Iraq for almost three decades and has written probing reports on the country. Out of the Ashes: The Resurrection of Saddam Hussein, which he coauthored with his brother, Andrew Cockburn, remains one of the best journalistic accounts of Saddam Hussein's rejuvenation as a political leader in the aftermath of the first Gulf War. Cockburn's latest book takes the reader through the often bewildering array of forces and personalities that are shaping developments in post-Saddam Iraq and makes them comprehensible to Western readers. The author was in Iraq when U.S. forces invaded that country and toppled its regime. Cockburn's account of the evolving conflict, the emergence of the resistance movement, the increasingly sectarian nature of the conflict, and the jockeying for power among the Shia, Sunni, and Kurdish communities is informed by his keen personal observations and understanding of the complexities and horrors of daily life in Iraq. Highly recommended for both public and academic libraries.-Nader Entessar, Univ. of South Alabama, Mobile Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.