The Assassins Gate, George Packer
The Assassins Gate, George Packer
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The Assassins' Gate
America in Iraq

Author: George Packer

Narrator: Richard Poe

Unabridged: 19 hr 45 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 01/15/2008

Synopsis

Winner of the Robert F. Kennedy Award, George Packer is a venerated staff writer for The New Yorker-with four tours on assignment in Iraq. With The Assassins' Gate, he offers a penetrating work of journalism on the United States' occupation of Iraq. The Assassins' Gate, dubbed so by American soldiers, is the entrance to the American zone in the city of Baghdad. In 2003, the United States blazed into Iraq to depose dictator Saddam Hussein. But after three years and unknown thousands killed, that country faces an escalating civil war and an uncertain fate. How did it get to this point? George Packer describes the players and ideas behind the Bush administration's war policy. He also provides first-hand accounts of the men and women-both civilian and military, coalition and Iraqi-who are caught in the middle of the conflict. Rich in history and political insight, this is an important contribution to the ongoing dialogue over the Iraq War.

About George Packer

George Packer is an award-winning author and staff writer at The Atlantic. His previous books include The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America (winner of the National Book Award), The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq, and Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century (winner of the Hitchens Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for biography). He is also the author of two novels and a play, and the editor of a two-volume edition of the essays of George Orwell.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Will on December 07, 2016

The gate referred to in the title is the entryway to the Green Zone. It is not one of the ancient structures one might find in this cradle of civilization but a modern construction put up by Saddam. Packer begins by looking at the intellectual underpinnings of the Iraq War, not the WMD nonsense, bu......more

Goodreads review by Larry on June 20, 2016

The US invasion of a rack began before the bombs fell in March 2003 and it continues to this date ( June 2016) with American troops still in a rock. This book is in excellent personal and political view of the more than a decade war that has embarrass the US and contributed to the distraction of a r......more

Goodreads review by Robert on May 06, 2025

Felt a bit directionless at first but ended up really enjoying this one. Unique in that it focuses a lot on the intellectual foundation for the war - trying to explain why certain ideas were in the bush admin at that specific time, why they had so much influence, etc. Really enjoyed it and thought t......more

Goodreads review by Marc on March 02, 2008

Packer is a fantastic writer, and there's some very good reporting in here as well. His writing on Iraq is both well-observed and emotionally moving. In addition, Packer does great work with the bureaucratic machinations that underlay the US invasion. So this book is worth reading, but with a massiv......more

Goodreads review by Dylan on June 22, 2011

I've long said that George Packer is America's sneakiest writer, and nowhere is it more apparent than in this book. Reading him once again sully those figures opposed to the war, who happened to be exactly right, through innuendo and at the same time champion the likes of Kanan Makiya and Paul Wolfo......more

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