Losing Iraq: Inside the Postwar Reconstruction Fiasco

According to conventional wisdom, Iraq has suffered because the Bush administration had no plan for reconstruction. ThatÕs not the case; the State DepartmentÕs Future of Iraq group planned out the situation carefully and extensively, and Middle East expert David Phillips was part of this group. White House ideologues and imprudent Pentagon officials decided simply to ignore those plans. The administration only listened to what it wanted to hear.Losing Iraq doesnÕt just criticize the policies of unilateralism, preemption, and possible deception that launched the war; it documents the process of returning sovereignty to an occupied Iraq. Unique, as well, are PhillipsÕs personal accounts of dissension within the administration.The problems encountered in Iraq are troubling not only in themselves but also because they bode ill for other nation-building efforts in which the U.S. may become mired through this administrationÕs doctrine of unilateral, preemptive war. Losing Iraq looks into the future of AmericaÕs foreign policy with a clear-eyed critique of the problems that loom ahead.