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Summary:

"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 deeply researched and news breaking investigation into how human error, cultural miscommunication, and hubris led to one of the greatest 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 which, if left unchecked, posed grave danger to the world. But when no WMDs were found, the US and its allies were forced to consider that their political and intelligence failures had led to one of the most disastrous conflicts of our time. And a more integral question remained unsolved: Why had Saddam seemingly sacrificed his long reign in power by giving the impression that he possessed 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, dramatizes America's fundamental miscalculations during its decades-long relationship with Saddam Hussein. Beginning with Saddam's rise to power in 1979 and the birth of Iraq's secret nuclear weapons program, Steve Coll traces Saddam's motives by way of his inner circle. He brings to life the diplomats, scientists, family members, and generals who had no choice but to defer to their leader-a leader directly responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, as well as the torture or imprisonment of hundreds of thousands more. This was a man whose reasoning was impossible to reduce to a simple explanation, and the CIA and successive presidential administrations failed to grasp integral nuances of his paranoia, resentments, and inconsistencies - even when the stakes were incredibly high. Calling on unpublished and under-reported sources, interviews with surviving participants, and Saddam's own transcripts and audio files, many of which have never been made public, 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 is the definitive account of 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"-- [Provided by publisher]

Table of Contents:

• The physicist and the dictator
• A spy bearing gifts
• A man and the city
• Ambassadors of cynicism
• Department 3000
• A conspiracy foretold
• Druid leader
• 'Who is going to say anything?'
• Prodigal son
• Project 17
• Crash programs
• 'The situation is under excellent control'
• Iraqi spring
• The liar's truths
• Mr. Max and the mayfair swindler
• 'We need to turn this thing off, now!'
• 'There would be a bloodbath'
• Honor among tyrants
• Spy v. spy
• Crime and punishment

• The logic of illusion
• The secret garden
• The pundit
• Cold pitch
• Cracked mirrors
• 'Do we have WMD?'
• The edge of the abyss.

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Author/Creator:

Coll, Steve , author

Languages:

English

Language Notes:

Item content: English

Main Work:

The Achilles trap: Saddam Hussein, the C.I.A., and the origins of America's invasion of Iraq [by Coll, S.]

Other Related Resources:

Print version: Achilles trap [by Coll, S.] (New York : Penguin Press, 2024 — ISBN 9780525562269; LCCN 2023022034)

Subjects:

Hussein, Saddam, 1937-2006

United States Central Intelligence Agency

Iraq War, 2003-2011

United States — Politics and government — 2001-2009

Iraq — Politics and government — 2003-

United States — Foreign relations — Iraq

Iraq — Foreign relations — United States

General Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.
Description based on online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on March 07, 2024).

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Call Numbers:

DS79.76 .C654 2024

ISBNs:

9780525562276 (electronic book)
0525562273 (electronic book)
9780525562269 (hardcover) [Invalid]

Library of Congress Control Numbers:

2023022035

OCLC Numbers:

1410111812

Other Control Numbers:

3624244 (source: EbpS)
[Unknown Type]: ybp306088000