The Achilles Trap

Informationen zum Autor Steve Coll Klappentext A New York Times and Washington Post Notable Book • Named a Best Book of the Year by The New Yorker • Nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award in Nonfiction • Finalist for the PEN America Literary Award Excellent . . . A more intimate picture of the dictator's thinking about world politics, local power and his relationship to the United States than has been seen before. The New York Times Another triumph from one of our best journalists. The Washington Post "Voluminously researched and compulsively readable." Air Mail From bestselling and Pulitzer Prizewinning author Steve Coll, the definitive story of the decades-long relationship between the United States and Saddam Hussein, and a news-breaking investigation into one of the costliest geopolitical conflicts of our time When the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, its message was clear: Iraq, under the control of strongman Saddam Hussein, possessed weapons of mass destruction that, if left unchecked, posed grave danger to the world. But when no WMDs were found, the United States and its allies were forced to examine the political and intelligence failures that had led to the invasion and the occupation, and the civil war that followed. One integral question has remained unsolved: Why had Saddam seemingly sacrificed his long reign in power by giving the false impression that he had hidden stocks of dangerous weapons? The Achilles Trap masterfully untangles the people, ploys of power, and geopolitics that led to America's disastrous war with Iraq and, for the first time, details America's fundamental miscalculations during its decades-long relationship with Saddam Hussein. Calling on unpublished and underreported sources, interviews with surviving participants, and Saddam's own transcripts and audio files, Steve Coll pulls together an incredibly comprehensive portrait of a man who was convinced the world was out to get him and acted accordingly. A work of great historical significance, The Achilles Trap exposes how corruptions of power, lies of diplomacy, and vanityon both sidesled to avoidable errors of statecraft, ones that would enact immeasurable human suffering and forever change the political landscape as we know it. Leseprobe Introduction In October 2003, seven months after the American- led invasion of Iraq, I traveled to Baghdad on assignment for The Washington Post . Saddam Hussein was by then a fugitive in hiding. Occasional car bombs rattled the capital, a prelude of much worse to come. One afternoon, at a fortified compound near the Republican Palace, I met Hamish Killip, a British investigator with the Iraq Survey Group, a C.I.A.- sponsored multinational task force dispatched at the onset of the invasion to find Saddam's hidden stocks of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons. By now it was apparent that Iraq possessed no such weapons. The shock of this revelation had already touched off investigations into the profound failures of U.S. intelligence and White House decision- making. In Iraq, the Survey Group's mission had unexpectedly changed from hunting for weapons to sorting truth from lies in the history of the Saddam Hussein regime. One set of questions involved Saddam's motivations. Why had he seemingly sacrificed his long reign in power by giving the impression that he had dangerous weapons when, in fact, he had none? Or as Killip put it that afternoon, addressing Saddam: What was so damned important that you were willing to go through all of this? Across town, I met David Kay, the Survey Group's leader. He was exploring a theory that Saddam had been bluffing pretending that he might have WMD in order to deter the radical ayatollahs of Iran from attacking Iraq. And yet the matter seemed uncert...

Autorentext

Steve Coll

Klappentext

*A New York Times and Washington Post Notable Book • Named a Best Book of the Year by The New Yorker • Nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award in Nonfiction •* Finalist for the PEN America Literary Award

“Excellent . . . A more intimate picture of the dictator’s thinking about world politics, local power and his relationship to the United States than has been seen before.” —The **New York Times

“Another triumph from one of our best journalists.” —*The Washington Post*

"Voluminously researched and compulsively readable." —Air Mail

From bestselling and Pulitzer Prize–winning author Steve Coll, the definitive story of the decades-long relationship between the United States and Saddam Hussein, and a news-breaking investigation into one of the costliest geopolitical conflicts of our time

When the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, its message was clear: Iraq, under the control of strongman Saddam Hussein, possessed weapons of mass destruction that, if left unchecked, posed grave danger to the world. But when no WMDs were found, the United States and its allies were forced to examine the political and intelligence failures that had led to the invasion and the occupation, and the civil war that followed. One integral question has remained unsolved: Why had Saddam seemingly sacrificed his long reign in power by giving the false impression that he had hidden stocks of dangerous weapons?

The Achilles Trap masterfully untangles the people, ploys of power, and geopolitics that led to America’s disastrous war with Iraq and, for the first time, details America’s fundamental miscalculations during its decades-long relationship with Saddam Hussein. Calling on unpublished and underreported sources, interviews with surviving participants, and Saddam’s own transcripts and audio files, Steve Coll pulls together an incredibly comprehensive portrait of a man who was convinced the world was out to get him and acted accordingly. A work of great historical significance, The Achilles Trap exposes how corruptions of power, lies of diplomacy, and vanity—on both sides—led to avoidable errors of statecraft, ones that would enact immeasurable human suffering and forever change the political landscape as we know it.

Leseprobe
Introduction

In October 2003, seven months after the American- led invasion of Iraq, I traveled to Baghdad on assignment for The Washington Post. Saddam Hussein was by then a fugitive in hiding. Occasional car bombs rattled the capital, a prelude of much worse to come. One afternoon, at a fortified compound near the Republican Palace, I met Hamish Killip, a British investigator with the Iraq Survey Group, a C.I.A.- sponsored multinational task force dispatched at the onset of the invasion to find Saddam’s hidden stocks of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons. By now it was apparent that Iraq possessed no such weapons. The shock of this revelation had already touched off investigations into the profound failures of U.S. intelligence and White House decision- making. In Iraq, the Survey Group’s mission had unexpectedly changed from hunting for weapons to sorting truth from lies in the history of the Saddam Hussein regime.

One set of questions involved Saddam’s motivations. Why had he seemingly sacrificed his long reign in power by giving the impression that he had dangerous weapons when, in fact, he had none? Or as Killip put it that afternoon, addressing Saddam: “What was so damned important that you were willing to go through all of this?”

Across town, I met David Kay, the Survey Group’s leader. He was exploring a theory that Saddam had been bluffing— pretending that he might have WMD in order to deter the radical ayatollahs of Iran from attacking Iraq. And yet the matter seemed uncertain, Kay told me,since Saddam did not appear to have been particularly afraid of Iran.When one of his ministers had worried aloud that Ira…