Out of the Ashes: The Resurrection of Saddam Hussein

by Patrick Cockburn and Andrew Cockburn

Book Overview

At the end of the Gulf War, the White House was confident that Saddam Hussein's days as Iraq's dictator were numbered. His army had been routed, his country had been bombed back into a pre-industrial age, his subjects were in bloody revolt, and his borders were sealed. World leaders waited confidently for the downfall of the pariah of Baghdad. Almost a decade later, they are still waiting. This is the first in-depth account of what went wrong. Drawing...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060929839
• ISBN13: 9780060929831
• Release Date: February 2000
• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.4" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

Excellent Reporting

If you are looking for one book to give you a thorough background on Iraq and its relations with the US, this is it. The Cockburn brothers have refused to dumb down the information, and yet have written a book that is accessible to all curious readers. Their lively account of the rise of Saddam and his Baath party held my attention throughout, reeling me in with good stories, while at the same time communicating the highly complex workings of the Iraqi government over the past several decades. Operating in ignorance of historical context is a dangerous game. The Cockburns go deep beneath the surface of Iraqi politics to give us the tools to understand the present situation. It's too bad that the administration apparently failed to read this book before barrelling ahead with war. Don't make the same mistake! Read the book, get the facts, and draw your own conclusions.

a marvelous look at the nation we are about to invade

Saddam Hussein and his sons and thier quest for nuclear supremacy is the subject of this well researched good read. With so many foolish biased books out on the subject today this book abounds with an unbiased account of the man Saddam. It includes looks inot his personal life, his childred, Uday and Qusay and also his sons in law and his bombmakers. It covers the kurds and the southern Shia muslims. A great read that is not poisened by todays Warmongering media coverage. Probably the books being written today are simply copies of this informative little read.

Do we even have a policy?

It is hard to imagine how a better book on the subject of Iraq since the Gulf War could be written. Andrew Cockburn - based in Washington, DC and Patrick - based in Jerusalem - are able to make use of an incredible assortment of inside sources to take us step-by-step through the US's (in most cases the CIA's) disastrous non-strategy of the past decade. Illogical and inconsistent policies, the betrayal of allies, lost opportunities, a continued failure to support viable oppostion movements - it's all here, crisply narrated. What really sets this book apart is the authors' astounding ability to elicit surreal humor from the most evil of situations - for example a first-hand account of Saddam's murdurous son Uday (who is also Chair of the Iraqi Olympic Committee, which has its own prison) discussing with his very fat and very drunk Armenian tailor (known as 'the philosopher') the relative merits of Liberace and Engelbert Humperdinck.I read this book this weekend at a single sitting, and I am proud to add it to my extensive library of Middle East policy studies. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

A Rare Inside Look at Iraq Under Saddam

US and British jets continue to daily pound away at Iraq, an ancient country now neatly subdivided on CNN into "fly" and "no fly" zones. Thousands of Iraqi civilians are dying of starvation, lack of medical care and so-called smart bombs that seem to go awry with a frightful regularity. Yet, Saddam Hussein's clutch on power remains as ironclad as ever. All of this is happening to the increasingly indifferent attention of the national press. Thankfully, Out of the Ashes, by Patrick and Andrew Cockburn, has arrived to set the record straight. Out of the Ashes is the kind of first-rate, fact-based reporting that we've desperately needed in order to understand what's really happening inside Iraq and how US foreign policy has made an intractable mess of a tragic situation. It gives us a rare inside look at Iraq in the wake of the Gulf War, the crippling economic sanctions, Saddam's bloody reconsolidation of power, and the continuing US/British bombing forays by reporters who have been there. Also laid bare is the behavior of the US State Department and American intelligence agencies, from the overheated saber-rattling rhetoric of Madeleine Albright to misbegotten coup attempts hatched by CIA director George Tenet. The book documents that time and again innocents, such as the Iraqi artist who was killed when a CIA-backed assassination attempt blew up a movie theater, pay the price. Out of the Ashes is both an unsparing history and a fast-paced narrative, which reads as grippingly as the best of John LeCarré.

Everything you always wanted to know about Saddam-and more

As a long time student of the Middle East, I found this study of what has become the tragedy of the Iraqi people fascinating. However, even if your knowledge of Iraq is limited to what you've learned from the newspapers and television news programs (especially if it comes from the newspapers and television news programs), you will quickly understand how the US policies towards Iraq have gone from bad to worse to disastrous. The Cockburns not only have a deep understanding of the situation, they also have a clear and precise writing style (not to mention black humor) that makes this a must read for anyone with an interest in the events of the day in a volatile region.