Book Review: The Achilles Trap, by Steve Coll – The New York Times
THE ACHILLES TRAP: Saddam Hussein, the C.I.A., and the Origins of Americas Invasion of Iraq, by Steve Coll
People love to imagine that world affairs are a game of chess, played by judicious leaders trying to outwit each other, acting with perfect self-knowledge and a clear understanding of what their opponent might do. But consider Vladimir Putin, Benjamin Netanyahu or Yahya Sinwar. There can be a tragic mismatch between the interests of a nation and the self-interest of its leaders. The people running the show are people. They act on their whims, and with myopic agendas. They screw up. Call it the frail man theory of history.
This cosmic, unavoidable inefficiency is the real subject of Steve Colls excellent The Achilles Trap, a chronicle of the lead-up to the Iraq war. In telling this history, he offers a useful reminder that Americas omniscience is just as likely to be overestimated as are the capabilities and intentions of most world actors.
Coll, a staff writer for The New Yorker and a former dean of the Columbia Journalism School, has written a suite of books about Americas entanglements in the Middle East. The Achilles Trap is clearly intended as a parallel project to his Pulitzer Prize-winning Ghost Wars, a history of the C.I.A.s role in the wars in Afghanistan. The new book stretches from Saddam Husseins earliest days in power to the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
At its heart lies an engrossing portrait of Hussein, which is drawn from interviews with U.S. officials, U.N. weapons inspectors and surviving members of the dictators government as well as what Coll calls the Saddam tapes: 2,000 hours of rarely accessed audio from high-level meetings that Hussein recorded as assiduously as Richard Nixon. The resulting details he assembles give a more intimate picture of the dictators thinking about world politics, local power and his relationship to the United States than has been seen before.
The American side of the lead-up to the Iraq war has been well documented, particularly the George W. Bush administrations megalomaniac ideologues and their intelligence failures. (And the C.I.A.s Iraq operation was nicknamed The House of Broken Toys long before anyone was talking about yellowcake or slam dunks.) Coll briskly moves past those preoccupations, which he chalks up, as others have, to confirmation bias: The United States assumed that Hussein was lying when he disavowed plans to possess and use weapons of mass destruction because hed possessed and used them before.
The richer narrative vein that Coll explores is the other confirmation bias thats been much less understood: that of Saddam Hussein, whose great mistake was in thinking that the United States was all-powerful and always competent. As Hussein later told U.S. investigators about his occupation of Kuwait in the early 1990s, If you didnt want me to go in, why didnt you tell me? Hussein also figured the C.I.A. knew he had no W.M.D.s. A C.I.A. capable of getting such a big question dead wrong on the facts, Coll writes, was not consistent with Saddams bedrock assumptions.
We are having trouble retrieving the article content.
Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit andlog intoyour Times account, orsubscribefor all of The Times.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access.
Already a subscriber?Log in.
Want all of The Times?Subscribe.
Read the original post:
Book Review: The Achilles Trap, by Steve Coll - The New York Times
- US OKs potential sale of aircraft support to Iraq, Pentagon says - The Jerusalem Post - April 16th, 2024 [April 16th, 2024]
- FBI charges arms dealers for conspiring to send weapons to Sudan, Iraq - USA TODAY - April 16th, 2024 [April 16th, 2024]
- Biden cheat sheet for Iraq PM meeting caught on camera -- including instructions to 'pause' - New York Post - April 16th, 2024 [April 16th, 2024]
- The Met, Amid an Audit of its Holdings, Returns an Ancient Statue to Iraq - The New York Times - April 16th, 2024 [April 16th, 2024]
- Iraq Hopes to Expand Economic Relationship With the U.S. - OilPrice.com - April 16th, 2024 [April 16th, 2024]
- US and UK forces help shoot down Iranian drones over Jordan, Syria and Iraq - The Guardian - April 16th, 2024 [April 16th, 2024]
- Footage shows Iranian Shahed 136 drone flying over Iraq en route to Israel - The Times of Israel - April 16th, 2024 [April 16th, 2024]
- Kataib Hezbollah is Part of Iraq's PMF - The Washington Institute - April 16th, 2024 [April 16th, 2024]
- Denmark will close down embassy in Iraq - The Jerusalem Post - April 16th, 2024 [April 16th, 2024]
- Iraq reopens airspace after Iran's strikes on Israel - The New Arab - April 16th, 2024 [April 16th, 2024]
- Biden to host Iraq's leader after Iran's attack on Israel spurs chaos across the Middle East - Yahoo! Voices - April 16th, 2024 [April 16th, 2024]
- Iraq Needs a New Kind of Partnership With the United States - Foreign Affairs Magazine - April 16th, 2024 [April 16th, 2024]
- Iraq denies any drones or missiles were launched from its territory during Iran attack - The Times of Israel - April 16th, 2024 [April 16th, 2024]
- Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon reopen airspace after Iran attacks - The Jerusalem Post - April 16th, 2024 [April 16th, 2024]
- Iraq postpones vote on bill including death penalty for same-sex acts - The Times of Israel - April 16th, 2024 [April 16th, 2024]
- Stroudsburg man sentenced to 70 years for torturing employee in Iraq - 69News WFMZ-TV - April 16th, 2024 [April 16th, 2024]
- Iraq's struggle, divided between the US and Iran - The Jerusalem Post - April 16th, 2024 [April 16th, 2024]
- Iraqi Airways announces the resumption of flights between Iraq and Iran - Reuters - April 16th, 2024 [April 16th, 2024]
- Who are Iran's proxies threatening Israel? - The Jerusalem Post - April 16th, 2024 [April 16th, 2024]
- Wreckage of Iranian missiles and drones bound for Israel found in Iraq - The National - April 16th, 2024 [April 16th, 2024]
- Iraqi PM tells US President that Iraq is shifting from a military alliance to economic ties with the US - Iraqi News - April 16th, 2024 [April 16th, 2024]
- Iraq PM arrives in Washington - Arab News - April 16th, 2024 [April 16th, 2024]
- Defense relationship part of US-Iraq talks in Washington next week, US official says - Reuters - April 16th, 2024 [April 16th, 2024]
- Ex-Sen. Bob Graham of Florida dies at 87; led Intelligence Committee after 9/11 and opposed Iraq invasion - The San Diego Union-Tribune - April 16th, 2024 [April 16th, 2024]
- How an Iraq War veteran coped with PTSD by using taste mindfulness and bourbon - Fox News - April 16th, 2024 [April 16th, 2024]
- Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon reopen airspace after Iran attacks - Deccan Herald - April 16th, 2024 [April 16th, 2024]
- Prime Minister Sudani's Pivotal US Visit and Its Implications for Iraq's Future - Wilson Center - April 16th, 2024 [April 16th, 2024]
- George Michael Took a Stand Against the Iraq War - Jacobin magazine - April 16th, 2024 [April 16th, 2024]
- Iraq to enhance air fleet with $140m US aircraft support deal - Airforce Technology - Airforce Technology - April 16th, 2024 [April 16th, 2024]
- Investigating Torture: FBI-HSI Investigation Leads to U.S. Citizen's Conviction for Human Rights Violations in Iraq FBI - Federal Bureau of... - April 16th, 2024 [April 16th, 2024]
- Iraq's "Resistance" Factions Shift to Major Crackdown on Media Spaces - The Washington Institute - March 2nd, 2024 [March 2nd, 2024]
- Couple Travels to Iraq After Vowing to Visit All 195 Countries Their Experience Goes Viral (Exclusive) - Yahoo Entertainment - March 2nd, 2024 [March 2nd, 2024]
- The devastation of Gaza was inevitable: A comparison to US operations in Iraq and Syria - The Times of Israel - March 2nd, 2024 [March 2nd, 2024]
- A careful rethinking of the Iraq War - MIT News - March 2nd, 2024 [March 2nd, 2024]
- Iraq War veteran struggles to access VA care in rural area - DAV - March 2nd, 2024 [March 2nd, 2024]
- Maintaining the best thing the US built in Iraq: Continued support to the Iraqi Counterterrorism Service - Middle East Institute - March 2nd, 2024 [March 2nd, 2024]
- Couple Travels to Iraq After Vowing to Visit All 195 Countries Their Experience Goes Viral (Exclusive) - PEOPLE - March 2nd, 2024 [March 2nd, 2024]
- Iraq's Twenty Years of Carnage | Joshua Hammer - The New York Review of Books - March 2nd, 2024 [March 2nd, 2024]
- Thousands of Ugandans may sue over U.S. security work in Iraq, Afghanistan - Semafor - March 2nd, 2024 [March 2nd, 2024]
- Iraq/KRI: Further Information: Journalist Released After Three Years Imprisonment: Guhdar Zebari - Amnesty International - March 2nd, 2024 [March 2nd, 2024]
- He saw the horrors of PTSD after serving in Iraq. Now this former Goldman Sachs analyst has a startup aimed at improving mental health treatment -... - March 2nd, 2024 [March 2nd, 2024]
- Cafe in Iraq allows customers to play with cats - WNCT - March 2nd, 2024 [March 2nd, 2024]
- Iraq Attracts Wave of Saudi and Gulf Investments for the First Time - The Media Line - March 2nd, 2024 [March 2nd, 2024]
- FEMA employees brought government devices abroad without authorization, including to China and Iraq, document ... - FedScoop - March 2nd, 2024 [March 2nd, 2024]
- Iraq War failures can be boiled down to miscommunications, according to this author - WLRN - March 2nd, 2024 [March 2nd, 2024]
- Steve Coll discusses collaboration with RCFP attorneys for new book, "The Achilles Trap" - Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press - March 2nd, 2024 [March 2nd, 2024]
- The National Guard's quiet role in Iraq, Syria and Jordan - Yahoo! Voices - March 2nd, 2024 [March 2nd, 2024]
- Two killed in Turkish drone strike in northern Iraq - Al Arabiya English - March 2nd, 2024 [March 2nd, 2024]
- Iraq to close all IDP camps by July 30 - Mission Network News - March 2nd, 2024 [March 2nd, 2024]
- President of the Republic: Iraq's oil production increased twofold to 4.7 million barrels in the past decade - Shafaq News - Shafaq News - March 2nd, 2024 [March 2nd, 2024]
- Third Edition of Antalya Diplomacy Forum Opens with Participation of Iraq Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of ... - - March 2nd, 2024 [March 2nd, 2024]
- Opinion: American airstrikes in Iraq, Syria, Yemen solidify a concerning reality - UT Daily Beacon - March 2nd, 2024 [March 2nd, 2024]
- Home Iraq Stories Rebuilding Social bonds through Baking - United Nations Development Programme - March 2nd, 2024 [March 2nd, 2024]
- Iraq's Central Bank sells over $1 billion in one week - Iraqi News - February 23rd, 2024 [February 23rd, 2024]
- Iraq's Alssad parters with Saudi Arabia's Al Rabie and Switzerland's Tetra Pak to tackle Iraq's food security - Iraqi News - February 23rd, 2024 [February 23rd, 2024]
- Iraq's positive trajectory serves as a beacon of hope - Arab News - February 23rd, 2024 [February 23rd, 2024]
- Iran-backed militias in Iraq claim to have targeted Israeli gas rig in Mediterranean - The Times of Israel - December 23rd, 2023 [December 23rd, 2023]
- I fought in Iraq, Israel has a sacred obligation to protect innocents that all those in uniform share - Fox News - December 23rd, 2023 [December 23rd, 2023]
- US troops in Iraq and Syria have faced over 100 attacks since October - Military Times - December 23rd, 2023 [December 23rd, 2023]
- Is Iraq really divided on resistance operations against US targets? - The Cradle - December 23rd, 2023 [December 23rd, 2023]
- Acting Deputy Secretary of State Nuland's Travel to Jordan and Iraq - United States Department of State - Department of State - December 23rd, 2023 [December 23rd, 2023]
- US must prepare for a long battle with Houthi rebels. Remember Iraq-Iran Tanker War in 1980s? - ThePrint - December 23rd, 2023 [December 23rd, 2023]
- Nikki Haley is correct that fentanyl deaths top casualties from 3 wars combined - The Dallas Morning News - December 23rd, 2023 [December 23rd, 2023]
- How Iraq is managing the Israel-Gaza crisis | Brookings - Brookings Institution - December 23rd, 2023 [December 23rd, 2023]
- Tragedies Born of Negligence in Iraq - Human Rights Watch - December 23rd, 2023 [December 23rd, 2023]
- No US troops injured in latest rocket strike at Iraq base - Stars and Stripes - December 23rd, 2023 [December 23rd, 2023]
- Senators Coons, Cruz introduce resolution to condemn attacks by Iranian military proxies on U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria - Senator Chris Coons - December 23rd, 2023 [December 23rd, 2023]
- Iraq and Turkey boost security ties in Ankara talks - The New Arab - December 23rd, 2023 [December 23rd, 2023]
- Iraqi militia attempts Eilat drone attack, was intercepted over Jordan - The Jerusalem Post - December 23rd, 2023 [December 23rd, 2023]
- Iraq heads to provincial elections, first in ten years - The Jerusalem Post - December 23rd, 2023 [December 23rd, 2023]
- Three Turkish soldiers killed in attack in northern Iraq ministry - Arab News - December 23rd, 2023 [December 23rd, 2023]
- 6 Turkish soldiers killed in terror attack in northern Iraq - Mehr News Agency - English Version - December 23rd, 2023 [December 23rd, 2023]
- WHO EMRO | WHO tackles low immunization challenges in Iraq | News | Iraq site - WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean - December 23rd, 2023 [December 23rd, 2023]
- Iraq arrests fugitive wanted in connection with Speicher massacre - Rudaw Media Network - December 23rd, 2023 [December 23rd, 2023]
- Trkiye, Iraq agree on expulsion of PKK terrorist group | Daily Sabah - Daily Sabah - December 23rd, 2023 [December 23rd, 2023]
- Trudeau government to spend nearly $10M to support unemployed youth in Iraq - Toronto Sun - December 23rd, 2023 [December 23rd, 2023]
- Korea to face Iraq in final tuneup before Asian Cup in January - - December 23rd, 2023 [December 23rd, 2023]
- Iraq, Turkiye FMs meet to discuss security, water issues - Middle East Monitor - December 23rd, 2023 [December 23rd, 2023]
- 6 Turkish soldiers killed in terror attack in northern Iraq - News.Az - December 23rd, 2023 [December 23rd, 2023]
- Head of Iraq's National Wisdom Movement congratulates President Sisi for new term of presidency - Egypt Today - December 23rd, 2023 [December 23rd, 2023]
Tags: