Books
George Packer
Based on everything we know about the history of war, we should have prepared ourselves to wait decades for a clear-eyed, intellectually honest account of the Iraq debacle. But in The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq, George Packer, who was an initial supporter of the invasion, delivered such a narrative way ahead of schedule. This in medias res arrival makes the book all the more powerful—it channels the reader’s inchoate anger at events into a sharp critique. Packer weaves sensitive political history and Technicolor on-the-ground reportage. Most poignantly, he manages to conjure the best intentions that culminated in this tragedy. They were, after all, his original intentions, too.