The Assassins' Gate
America in Iraq
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $25.79
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Richard Poe
-
By:
-
George Packer
About this listen
Rich in history and political insight, this is an important contribution to the ongoing dialogue over the Iraq War. 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.
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.
©2005 George Packer (P)2006 Recorded Books LLCListeners also enjoyed...
-
Fiasco
- The American Military Adventure in Iraq
- By: Thomas E. Ricks
- Narrated by: James Lurie
- Length: 10 hrs and 15 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The American military is a tightly sealed community, and few outsiders have reason to know that a great many senior officers view the Iraq war with incredulity and dismay. But many officers have shared their anger with renowned military reporter Thomas E. Ricks, and in Fiasco, Ricks combines these astonishing on-the-record military accounts with his own extraordinary on-the-ground reportage to create a spellbinding account of an epic disaster.
-
-
History not Politics
- By Scott on 08-10-06
By: Thomas E. Ricks
-
Last Best Hope
- America in Crisis and Renewal
- By: George Packer
- Narrated by: George Packer
- Length: 6 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Acclaimed National Book Award-winning author George Packer diagnoses America’s descent into a failed state and envisions a path toward overcoming our injustices, paralyses, and divides.
-
-
Terribly disappointing
- By Bill Lauderback on 07-13-21
By: George Packer
-
Our Man
- Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century
- By: George Packer
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 20 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Richard Holbrooke was brilliant, utterly self-absorbed, and possessed of almost inhuman energy and appetites. Admired and detested, he was the force behind the Dayton Accords that ended the Balkan wars, America's greatest diplomatic achievement in the post-Cold War era. His power lay in an utter belief in himself and his idea of a muscular, generous foreign policy. From his days as a young adviser in Vietnam to his last efforts to end the war in Afghanistan, Holbrooke embodied the postwar American impulse to take the lead on the global stage.
-
-
Story telling at its finest...
- By Chris Garrett on 11-10-19
By: George Packer
-
Tired of Winning
- Donald Trump and the End of the Grand Old Party
- By: Jonathan Karl
- Narrated by: Jonathan Karl
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Packed with new reporting, Tired of Winning: Donald Trump and the End of the Grand Old Party tracks Trump’s improbable journey from disgraced and defeated former president to the dominant force, yet again, in the Republican Party. From his exile in Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump has become more extreme, vengeful, and divorced from reality than he was on January 6, 2021. His meddling damaged the GOP’s electoral prospects for third consecutive election in 2022. His legal troubles are mounting. Yet he re-emerged as the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
-
-
Compelling and Terrifying
- By Shaz on 11-15-23
By: Jonathan Karl
-
Inferno
- The World at War, 1939-1945
- By: Max Hastings
- Narrated by: Ralph Cosham
- Length: 31 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From one of our finest military historians, a monumental work that shows us at once the truly global reach of World War II and its deeply personal consequences.
-
-
Superb
- By David on 04-05-21
By: Max Hastings
-
The Looming Tower
- Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11
- By: Lawrence Wright
- Narrated by: Lawrence Wright
- Length: 16 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A sweeping narrative history of the events leading to 9/11, a groundbreaking look at the people and ideas, the terrorist plans and the Western intelligence failures that culminated in the assault on America. Lawrence Wright's remarkable book is based on five years of research and hundreds of interviews that he conducted in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sudan, England, France, Germany, Spain, and the United States.
-
-
Supremely thorough and interesting
- By Josh on 10-05-17
By: Lawrence Wright
-
Fiasco
- The American Military Adventure in Iraq
- By: Thomas E. Ricks
- Narrated by: James Lurie
- Length: 10 hrs and 15 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The American military is a tightly sealed community, and few outsiders have reason to know that a great many senior officers view the Iraq war with incredulity and dismay. But many officers have shared their anger with renowned military reporter Thomas E. Ricks, and in Fiasco, Ricks combines these astonishing on-the-record military accounts with his own extraordinary on-the-ground reportage to create a spellbinding account of an epic disaster.
-
-
History not Politics
- By Scott on 08-10-06
By: Thomas E. Ricks
-
Last Best Hope
- America in Crisis and Renewal
- By: George Packer
- Narrated by: George Packer
- Length: 6 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Acclaimed National Book Award-winning author George Packer diagnoses America’s descent into a failed state and envisions a path toward overcoming our injustices, paralyses, and divides.
-
-
Terribly disappointing
- By Bill Lauderback on 07-13-21
By: George Packer
-
Our Man
- Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century
- By: George Packer
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 20 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Richard Holbrooke was brilliant, utterly self-absorbed, and possessed of almost inhuman energy and appetites. Admired and detested, he was the force behind the Dayton Accords that ended the Balkan wars, America's greatest diplomatic achievement in the post-Cold War era. His power lay in an utter belief in himself and his idea of a muscular, generous foreign policy. From his days as a young adviser in Vietnam to his last efforts to end the war in Afghanistan, Holbrooke embodied the postwar American impulse to take the lead on the global stage.
-
-
Story telling at its finest...
- By Chris Garrett on 11-10-19
By: George Packer
-
Tired of Winning
- Donald Trump and the End of the Grand Old Party
- By: Jonathan Karl
- Narrated by: Jonathan Karl
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Packed with new reporting, Tired of Winning: Donald Trump and the End of the Grand Old Party tracks Trump’s improbable journey from disgraced and defeated former president to the dominant force, yet again, in the Republican Party. From his exile in Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump has become more extreme, vengeful, and divorced from reality than he was on January 6, 2021. His meddling damaged the GOP’s electoral prospects for third consecutive election in 2022. His legal troubles are mounting. Yet he re-emerged as the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
-
-
Compelling and Terrifying
- By Shaz on 11-15-23
By: Jonathan Karl
-
Inferno
- The World at War, 1939-1945
- By: Max Hastings
- Narrated by: Ralph Cosham
- Length: 31 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From one of our finest military historians, a monumental work that shows us at once the truly global reach of World War II and its deeply personal consequences.
-
-
Superb
- By David on 04-05-21
By: Max Hastings
-
The Looming Tower
- Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11
- By: Lawrence Wright
- Narrated by: Lawrence Wright
- Length: 16 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A sweeping narrative history of the events leading to 9/11, a groundbreaking look at the people and ideas, the terrorist plans and the Western intelligence failures that culminated in the assault on America. Lawrence Wright's remarkable book is based on five years of research and hundreds of interviews that he conducted in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sudan, England, France, Germany, Spain, and the United States.
-
-
Supremely thorough and interesting
- By Josh on 10-05-17
By: Lawrence Wright
-
Directorate S
- The C.I.A. and America's Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan
- By: Steve Coll
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 28 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Resuming the narrative of his Pulitzer Prize-winning Ghost Wars, best-selling author Steve Coll tells for the first time the epic and enthralling story of America's intelligence, military, and diplomatic efforts to defeat Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan since 9/11.
-
-
Slow At Times But Always Horrifying And Engaging
- By Gillian on 02-20-18
By: Steve Coll
-
Our Oriental Heritage
- The Story of Civilization, Volume 1
- By: Will Durant
- Narrated by: Robin Field
- Length: 50 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The first volume of Will Durant's Pulitzer Prize-winning series, Our Oriental Heritage: The Story of Civilization, Volume I chronicles the early history of Egypt, the Middle East, and Asia.
-
-
Wonderful
- By Michael on 11-30-13
By: Will Durant
-
Blowback
- A Warning to Save Democracy from the Next Trump
- By: Miles Taylor
- Narrated by: Miles Taylor
- Length: 12 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Donald Trump will be president again, whether he is on the ballot or not. That is because Trumpism is overtaking the Republican Party and will mount a vigorous comeback, potentially in the hands of a savvier successor. This prophecy will come true, according to Miles Taylor, if we do not learn the lessons of the recent past. With the 2024 election approaching, the formerly “Anonymous” official is back with bombshell revelations and a sobering national forecast. Taylor predicts what could happen inside “Trump 2.0,” the White House of a more competent and more formidable copycat.
-
-
We will only have ourselves to blame if we sink into autocracy
- By MS on 07-23-23
By: Miles Taylor
-
Imperial Life in the Emerald City
- By: Rajiv Chandrasekaran
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Washington Post's former Baghdad bureau chief, Rajiv Chandrasekaran, takes us into the Green Zone, headquarters for the American occupation in Iraq. In this bubble separated from wartime realities, the task of reconstructing Iraq is in the hands of 20-somethings chosen for their Republican Party loyalty. They pursue irrelevant neoconservative solutions and pie-in-the-sky policies instead of rebuilding looted buildings and restoring electricity, angering the locals and fueling the insurgency.
-
-
A stunning work and performance
- By Rick Grant on 04-25-07
-
Ghost Wars
- The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001
- By: Steve Coll
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 26 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The explosive first-hand account of America's secret history in Afghanistan. With the publication of Ghost Wars, Steve Coll became not only a Pulitzer Prize winner, but also the expert on the rise of the Taliban, the emergence of Bin Laden, and the secret efforts by CIA officers and their agents to capture or kill Bin Laden in Afghanistan after 1998.
-
-
An Exceptional Accomplishment
- By Joe on 11-08-13
By: Steve Coll
-
The Tragedy of Great Power Politics
- By: John J. Mearsheimer
- Narrated by: Mark Ashby
- Length: 16 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A decade after the cold war ended, policy makers and academics foresaw a new era of peace and prosperity, an era in which democracy and open trade would herald the "end of history." The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, sadly shattered these idyllic illusions, and John Mearsheimer's masterful new book explains why these harmonious visions remain utopian.
-
-
Exceptional
- By Logical Paradox on 08-19-14
-
Alone at Dawn
- Medal of Honor Recipient John Chapman and the Untold Story of the World's Deadliest Special Operations Force
- By: Dan Schilling, Lori Longfritz
- Narrated by: Kiff VandenHeuvel, Betsy Foldes Meiman
- Length: 11 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the predawn hours of March 4, 2002, just below the 10,000-foot peak of a mountain in eastern Afghanistan, a fierce battle raged. Outnumbered by Al Qaeda fighters, Air Force Combat Controller John Chapman and a handful of SEALs struggled to take the summit in a desperate bid to find a lost teammate. Chapman, leading the charge, was gravely wounded in the initial assault. Believing he was dead, his SEAL leader ordered a retreat. Chapman regained consciousness, alone with the enemy closing in on three sides, beginning the most difficult and exceptional fight of his life.
-
-
Wasted chance to honor a hero.
- By Scott on 07-11-19
By: Dan Schilling, and others
-
We Don't Know Ourselves
- A Personal History of Modern Ireland
- By: Fintan O'Toole
- Narrated by: Aidan Kelly
- Length: 22 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In We Don't Know Ourselves, Fintan O'Toole weaves his own experiences into Irish social, cultural, and economic change, showing how Ireland, in just one lifetime, has gone from a reactionary "backwater" to an almost totally open society - perhaps the most astonishing national transformation in modern history. O'Toole narrates the once unthinkable collapse of the all-powerful Catholic Church, brought down by scandal and by the activism of ordinary Irish. He relates the horrific violence of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, which led most Irish to reject violent nationalism.
-
-
Relentlessly Negative
- By John on 06-02-22
By: Fintan O'Toole
-
Woke Racism
- How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America
- By: John McWhorter
- Narrated by: John McWhorter
- Length: 5 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Acclaimed linguist and award-winning writer John McWhorter argues that an illiberal neoracism, disguised as antiracism, is hurting Black communities and weakening the American social fabric.
-
-
Thank You
- By Withacy on 10-26-21
By: John McWhorter
-
Cuba (Winner of the Pulitzer Prize)
- An American History
- By: Ada Ferrer
- Narrated by: Alma Cuervo, Ada Ferrer - prologue
- Length: 23 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1961, at the height of the Cold War, the United States severed diplomatic relations with Cuba, where a momentous revolution had taken power three years earlier. For more than half a century, the stand-off continued—through the tenure of ten American presidents and the fifty-year rule of Fidel Castro. His death in 2016, and the retirement of his brother and successor Raúl Castro in 2021, have spurred questions about the country’s future. Spanning more than five centuries, Cuba provides us with a front-row seat as we witness the evolution of the modern nation.
-
-
US Bash Job
- By Derek & Amber Witt on 04-14-22
By: Ada Ferrer
-
On Desperate Ground
- The Marines at the Reservoir, the Korean War's Greatest Battle
- By: Hampton Sides
- Narrated by: David Pittu
- Length: 12 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hampton Sides' superb account of this epic clash in the Korean War relies on years of archival research, unpublished letters, declassified documents, and interviews with scores of marines and Koreans who survived the siege. While expertly detailing the follies of the American leaders, On Desperate Ground is an immediate, grunt's-eye view of history, enthralling in its narrative pace and powerful in its portrayal of what ordinary men are capable of in the most extreme circumstances.
-
-
typical armchair critic armed with hign site
- By Brent on 10-03-18
By: Hampton Sides
-
Black Hearts
- One Platoon's Descent into Madness in Iraq's Triangle of Death
- By: Jim Frederick
- Narrated by: Corey Snow
- Length: 12 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the story of a small group of soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division's fabled 502nd Infantry Regiment - a unit known as the Black Heart Brigade. Deployed in late 2005 to Iraq's so-called Triangle of Death, a veritable meat grinder just south of Baghdad, the Black Hearts found themselves in arguably the country's most dangerous location at its most dangerous time.
-
-
Sadness
- By Richard on 04-02-19
By: Jim Frederick
Critic reviews
"[A] well-researched, articulate, journalistic account." (School Library Journal)
"Packer shows himself once more to be the best chronicler, apart perhaps from John Burns of the New York Times, that the conflict has produced." (Publishers Weekly)
"It is a pleasure to find a work that strives for balance, fairness, and understanding in surveying the causes and course of the ongoing Iraqi war....This is a troubling but deeply moving examination." (Booklist)
Related to this topic
-
A Kingdom of Their Own
- The Family Karzai and the Afghan Disaster
- By: Joshua Partlow
- Narrated by: P. J. Ochlan
- Length: 18 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The key to understanding the calamitous Afghan war is the complex, ultimately failed relationship between the powerful, duplicitous Karzai family and the United States, brilliantly portrayed here by the former Kabul bureau chief for The Washington Post.
-
-
Fabulous
- By Charles S. on 10-23-23
By: Joshua Partlow
-
Inside the Kingdom
- Kings, Clerics, Modernists, Terrorists, and the Struggle for Saudi Arabia
- By: Robert Lacey
- Narrated by: Robert Lacey
- Length: 13 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Best-selling author Robert Lacey tells us what happened in the Middle East's oil-rich powerhouse---while we weren't looking.
-
-
Inside the Kingdom
- By Ibrahim on 03-19-10
By: Robert Lacey
-
The Road Not Taken
- Edward Lansdale and the American Tragedy in Vietnam
- By: Max Boot
- Narrated by: Henry Strozier
- Length: 27 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In chronicling the adventurous life of legendary CIA operative Edward Lansdale, The Road Not Taken definitively reframes our understanding of the Vietnam War. In this epic biography of Edward Lansdale (1908-1987) best-selling historian Max Boot demonstrates how Lansdale pioneered a "hearts and mind" diplomacy, first in the Philippines, then in Vietnam. It was a visionary policy that, as Boot reveals, was ultimately crushed by America's giant military bureaucracy.
-
-
An honest look at Vietnam Nam and USA
- By Catherine on 01-16-18
By: Max Boot
-
Black Flags
- The Rise of ISIS
- By: Joby Warrick
- Narrated by: Sunil Malhotra
- Length: 13 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a thrilling dramatic narrative, awarded the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction, Joby Warrick traces how the strain of militant Islam behind ISIS first arose in a remote Jordanian prison and spread with the unwitting aid of two American presidents.
-
-
So much learned
- By mike flavin on 02-11-16
By: Joby Warrick
-
A Thousand Hills
- Rwanda's Rebirth and the Man Who Dreamed It
- By: Stephen Kinzer
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Paul Kagame grew up as a wretched refugee. He and a group of comrades, determined to force their way back home after a generation of exile, designed one of the most audacious covert operations in the history of clandestine war. Then, after taking power, they amazed the world by stabilizing and reviving their devastated country.
-
-
Best Most Comprehensive Work on Rwanda
- By Greg on 07-30-10
By: Stephen Kinzer
-
The Terror Years
- From al-Qaeda to the Islamic State
- By: Lawrence Wright
- Narrated by: John H. Mayer, Lawrence Wright
- Length: 17 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Looming Tower, Lawrence Wright became generally acknowledged as one of our major journalists writing on terrorism in the Middle East. This collection draws on several articles he wrote while researching that book as well as many that he's written since, following where and how al-Qaeda and its core cultlike beliefs have morphed and spread.
-
-
Contains much old material from "Looming Tower"
- By peter on 09-21-16
By: Lawrence Wright
-
A Kingdom of Their Own
- The Family Karzai and the Afghan Disaster
- By: Joshua Partlow
- Narrated by: P. J. Ochlan
- Length: 18 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The key to understanding the calamitous Afghan war is the complex, ultimately failed relationship between the powerful, duplicitous Karzai family and the United States, brilliantly portrayed here by the former Kabul bureau chief for The Washington Post.
-
-
Fabulous
- By Charles S. on 10-23-23
By: Joshua Partlow
-
Inside the Kingdom
- Kings, Clerics, Modernists, Terrorists, and the Struggle for Saudi Arabia
- By: Robert Lacey
- Narrated by: Robert Lacey
- Length: 13 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Best-selling author Robert Lacey tells us what happened in the Middle East's oil-rich powerhouse---while we weren't looking.
-
-
Inside the Kingdom
- By Ibrahim on 03-19-10
By: Robert Lacey
-
The Road Not Taken
- Edward Lansdale and the American Tragedy in Vietnam
- By: Max Boot
- Narrated by: Henry Strozier
- Length: 27 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In chronicling the adventurous life of legendary CIA operative Edward Lansdale, The Road Not Taken definitively reframes our understanding of the Vietnam War. In this epic biography of Edward Lansdale (1908-1987) best-selling historian Max Boot demonstrates how Lansdale pioneered a "hearts and mind" diplomacy, first in the Philippines, then in Vietnam. It was a visionary policy that, as Boot reveals, was ultimately crushed by America's giant military bureaucracy.
-
-
An honest look at Vietnam Nam and USA
- By Catherine on 01-16-18
By: Max Boot
-
Black Flags
- The Rise of ISIS
- By: Joby Warrick
- Narrated by: Sunil Malhotra
- Length: 13 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a thrilling dramatic narrative, awarded the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction, Joby Warrick traces how the strain of militant Islam behind ISIS first arose in a remote Jordanian prison and spread with the unwitting aid of two American presidents.
-
-
So much learned
- By mike flavin on 02-11-16
By: Joby Warrick
-
A Thousand Hills
- Rwanda's Rebirth and the Man Who Dreamed It
- By: Stephen Kinzer
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Paul Kagame grew up as a wretched refugee. He and a group of comrades, determined to force their way back home after a generation of exile, designed one of the most audacious covert operations in the history of clandestine war. Then, after taking power, they amazed the world by stabilizing and reviving their devastated country.
-
-
Best Most Comprehensive Work on Rwanda
- By Greg on 07-30-10
By: Stephen Kinzer
-
The Terror Years
- From al-Qaeda to the Islamic State
- By: Lawrence Wright
- Narrated by: John H. Mayer, Lawrence Wright
- Length: 17 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Looming Tower, Lawrence Wright became generally acknowledged as one of our major journalists writing on terrorism in the Middle East. This collection draws on several articles he wrote while researching that book as well as many that he's written since, following where and how al-Qaeda and its core cultlike beliefs have morphed and spread.
-
-
Contains much old material from "Looming Tower"
- By peter on 09-21-16
By: Lawrence Wright
-
The Unraveling
- High Hopes and Missed Opportunities in Iraq
- By: Emma Sky
- Narrated by: Henrietta Meire
- Length: 11 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Emma Sky, an intrepid young British woman, volunteered to help rebuild Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, she had little idea what she was letting herself in for: a tour that would last over a decade, longer than that of any senior military or political official. As the only adviser to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Kirkuk and the closest confidante to US General Odierno, Sky was valued for her controversial voice and outsider's point of view.
-
-
Inspiring memoir; irritating narration
- By Amazon Customer on 09-17-16
By: Emma Sky
-
The Devil We Know
- Dealing with the New Iranian Superpower
- By: Robert Baer
- Narrated by: Ted Barker
- Length: 9 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Over the past 30 years, while the United States has turned either a blind or dismissive eye, Iran has emerged as a nation every bit as capable of altering America's destiny as traditional superpowers Russia and China. Indeed, one of this audiobook's central arguments is that, in some ways, Iran's grip on America's future is even tighter.
-
-
Insider's Guide to Middle East Conspiracy Theory
- By Delano on 10-07-08
By: Robert Baer
-
Red Heat
- Conspiracy, Murder, and the Cold War in the Caribbean
- By: Alex von Tunzelmann
- Narrated by: Sarah Coomes
- Length: 19 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Caribbean crises of the Cold War are revealed as never before in this riveting story of clashing ideologies, the rise of the politics of fear, the machinations of superpowers, and the daring of the brazen mavericks who took them on. The superpowers thought they could use Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic as puppets, but what neither bargained on was that their puppets would come to life.
-
-
Interesting, not extraordinary.
- By History on 10-24-11
-
Charlie Wilson's War
- The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History
- By: George Crile
- Narrated by: Christopher Lane
- Length: 20 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Charlie Wilson's War is the untold story behind the last battle of the Cold War and how it fueled the rise of militant Islam. George Crile tells how Charlie Wilson, a maverick congressman from east Texas, conspired with a rogue CIA operative to launch the biggest, meanest, and most successful covert operation in the agency's history.
-
-
The REAL Story of the Middle East and the CIA
- By Dale on 08-24-04
By: George Crile
-
Debriefing the President
- The Interrogation of Saddam Hussein
- By: John Nixon
- Narrated by: John Nixon
- Length: 5 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In December 2003, after one of the largest, most aggressive manhunts in history, US military forces captured Iraqi president Saddam Hussein near his hometown of Tikrit. Beset by body-double rumors and false alarms during a nine-month search, the Bush administration needed positive identification of the prisoner before it could make the announcement that would rocket around the world. At the time John Nixon was a senior CIA leadership analyst who had spent years studying the Iraqi dictator.
-
-
Not What You Think It Is
- By Doug on 01-10-17
By: John Nixon
-
Into the Hands of the Soldiers
- Freedom and Chaos in Egypt and the Middle East
- By: David D. Kirkpatrick
- Narrated by: David D. Kirkpatrick
- Length: 13 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Egypt has long set the paradigm for Arab autocracy. It is the keeper of the peace with Israel and the cornerstone of the American-backed regional order. So when Egyptians rose up to demand democracy in 2011, their 30 months of freedom convulsed the whole region. Now a new strongman, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, is building a dictatorship so severe some call it totalitarian. The economy sputters, an insurgency simmers, Christians suffer, and the Israeli military has been forced to intervene. But some in Washington - including President Trump - applaud Sisi as a crucial ally.
-
-
may get better, but presentation is off putting
- By Fruggs on 08-28-18
-
War on Peace
- The End of Diplomacy and the Decline of American Influence
- By: Ronan Farrow
- Narrated by: Ronan Farrow
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
American diplomacy is under siege. Offices across the State Department sit empty while abroad, the military-industrial complex has assumed the work once undertaken by peacemakers. We're becoming a nation that shoots first and asks questions later. In an astonishing account ranging from Washington, DC, to Afghanistan, Pakistan, and North Korea in the years since 9/11, acclaimed journalist and former diplomat Ronan Farrow illuminates one of the most consequential and poorly understood changes in American history.
-
-
Well Timed and Authoritative:
- By JC on 04-24-18
By: Ronan Farrow
-
The Good Spy
- The Life and Death of Robert Ames
- By: Kai Bird
- Narrated by: René Ruiz
- Length: 14 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Good Spy is Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Kai Bird’s compelling portrait of the remarkable life and death of one of the most important operatives in CIA history - a man who, had he lived, might have helped heal the rift between Arabs and the West. On April 18, 1983, a bomb exploded outside the American Embassy in Beirut, killing 63 people. The attack was a geopolitical turning point. It marked the beginning of Hezbollah as a political force, but even more important, it eliminated America’s most influential and effective intelligence officer in the Middle East - CIA operative Robert Ames.
-
-
Biased but interesting
- By Peggy on 05-09-18
By: Kai Bird
-
The Prince of the Marshes
- By: Rory Stewart
- Narrated by: Rory Stewart
- Length: 12 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Told from Stewart's distinctly Western perspective, The Prince of the Marshes chronicles his time acting as the deputy governor of two southern Iraqi provinces.
-
-
A View From The Real Iraq
- By James on 11-24-07
By: Rory Stewart
-
Thirteen Days in September
- Carter, Begin, and Sadat at Camp David
- By: Lawrence Wright
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall, Lawrence Wright
- Length: 11 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A gripping day-by-day account of the 1978 Camp David conference, when President Jimmy Carter persuaded Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian president Anwar Sadat to sign the first peace treaty in the modern Middle East, one which endures to this day.
-
-
Lessons in Negotiation
- By David on 06-18-15
By: Lawrence Wright
-
The Burning Shores
- Inside the Battle for the New Libya
- By: Frederic Wehrey
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The death of Colonel Muammar Qadhafi freed Libya from 42 years of despotic rule, raising hopes for a new era. But in the aftermath, the country descended into bitter rivalries and civil war, paving the way for the Islamic State and a catastrophic migrant crisis. In a fast-paced narrative that blends frontline reporting, analysis, and history, Frederic Wehrey tells the story of what went wrong.
-
-
amazing yet painful book
- By Ghassan Tranesh on 09-20-18
By: Frederic Wehrey
-
The Fall of Heaven
- The Pahlavis and the Final Days of Imperial Iran
- By: Andrew Scott Cooper
- Narrated by: Assaf Cohen
- Length: 22 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this remarkably human portrait of one of the 20th century's most complicated personalities, author Andrew Scott Cooper traces Mohammad Reza Pahlavi's life from childhood through his ascension to the throne in 1941. He highlights the turbulence of the postwar era, during which the shah survived assassination attempts and coup plots to build a modern, pro-Western state and launch Iran onto the world stage as one of the world's top five powers.
-
-
Excellent account of a pivotal and sad time
- By Guerin Shea on 09-05-16
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Our Man
- Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century
- By: George Packer
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 20 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Richard Holbrooke was brilliant, utterly self-absorbed, and possessed of almost inhuman energy and appetites. Admired and detested, he was the force behind the Dayton Accords that ended the Balkan wars, America's greatest diplomatic achievement in the post-Cold War era. His power lay in an utter belief in himself and his idea of a muscular, generous foreign policy. From his days as a young adviser in Vietnam to his last efforts to end the war in Afghanistan, Holbrooke embodied the postwar American impulse to take the lead on the global stage.
-
-
Story telling at its finest...
- By Chris Garrett on 11-10-19
By: George Packer
-
Blood of the Liberals
- By: George Packer
- Narrated by: George Packer
- Length: 17 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An acclaimed journalist and novelist explores the legacy and future of American liberalism through the history of his family's politically active history. Searching, engrossing, and persuasive, this is an original, intimate examination of the meaning of politics in American lives.
By: George Packer
-
Fiasco
- The American Military Adventure in Iraq
- By: Thomas E. Ricks
- Narrated by: James Lurie
- Length: 10 hrs and 15 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The American military is a tightly sealed community, and few outsiders have reason to know that a great many senior officers view the Iraq war with incredulity and dismay. But many officers have shared their anger with renowned military reporter Thomas E. Ricks, and in Fiasco, Ricks combines these astonishing on-the-record military accounts with his own extraordinary on-the-ground reportage to create a spellbinding account of an epic disaster.
-
-
History not Politics
- By Scott on 08-10-06
By: Thomas E. Ricks
-
Betrayed
- By: George Packer
- Narrated by: Jeremy Beck, Kevin Daniels, Andrea Gabriel, and others
- Length: 1 hr and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Based on the journalist-playwright's original article in The New Yorker, Betrayed is the story of three young Iraqi translators who risk everything for America's promise of freedom while their country collapses around them.
By: George Packer
-
The Unwinding
- An Inner History of the New America
- By: George Packer
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 18 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Unwinding, George Packer, author of The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq, tells the story of the United States over the past three decades in an utterly original way, with his characteristically sharp eye for detail and gift for weaving together complex narratives. The Unwinding portrays a superpower in danger of coming apart at the seams, its elites no longer elite, its institutions no longer working, its ordinary people left to improvise their own schemes for success and salvation.
-
-
Can't understand the low ratings!
- By Janet Pittman Henley on 05-27-13
By: George Packer
-
We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families
- Stories from Rwanda
- By: Philip Gourevitch
- Narrated by: Philip Gourevitch
- Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An unforgettable firsthand account of a people's response to genocide and what it tells us about humanity. This remarkable audiobook chronicles what has happened in Rwanda and neighboring states since 1994, when the Rwandan government called on everyone in the Hutu majority to murder everyone in the Tutsi minority.
-
-
Things you'd never imagine
- By LEE on 12-27-19
-
Our Man
- Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century
- By: George Packer
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 20 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Richard Holbrooke was brilliant, utterly self-absorbed, and possessed of almost inhuman energy and appetites. Admired and detested, he was the force behind the Dayton Accords that ended the Balkan wars, America's greatest diplomatic achievement in the post-Cold War era. His power lay in an utter belief in himself and his idea of a muscular, generous foreign policy. From his days as a young adviser in Vietnam to his last efforts to end the war in Afghanistan, Holbrooke embodied the postwar American impulse to take the lead on the global stage.
-
-
Story telling at its finest...
- By Chris Garrett on 11-10-19
By: George Packer
-
Blood of the Liberals
- By: George Packer
- Narrated by: George Packer
- Length: 17 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An acclaimed journalist and novelist explores the legacy and future of American liberalism through the history of his family's politically active history. Searching, engrossing, and persuasive, this is an original, intimate examination of the meaning of politics in American lives.
By: George Packer
-
Fiasco
- The American Military Adventure in Iraq
- By: Thomas E. Ricks
- Narrated by: James Lurie
- Length: 10 hrs and 15 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The American military is a tightly sealed community, and few outsiders have reason to know that a great many senior officers view the Iraq war with incredulity and dismay. But many officers have shared their anger with renowned military reporter Thomas E. Ricks, and in Fiasco, Ricks combines these astonishing on-the-record military accounts with his own extraordinary on-the-ground reportage to create a spellbinding account of an epic disaster.
-
-
History not Politics
- By Scott on 08-10-06
By: Thomas E. Ricks
-
Betrayed
- By: George Packer
- Narrated by: Jeremy Beck, Kevin Daniels, Andrea Gabriel, and others
- Length: 1 hr and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Based on the journalist-playwright's original article in The New Yorker, Betrayed is the story of three young Iraqi translators who risk everything for America's promise of freedom while their country collapses around them.
By: George Packer
-
The Unwinding
- An Inner History of the New America
- By: George Packer
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 18 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Unwinding, George Packer, author of The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq, tells the story of the United States over the past three decades in an utterly original way, with his characteristically sharp eye for detail and gift for weaving together complex narratives. The Unwinding portrays a superpower in danger of coming apart at the seams, its elites no longer elite, its institutions no longer working, its ordinary people left to improvise their own schemes for success and salvation.
-
-
Can't understand the low ratings!
- By Janet Pittman Henley on 05-27-13
By: George Packer
-
We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families
- Stories from Rwanda
- By: Philip Gourevitch
- Narrated by: Philip Gourevitch
- Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An unforgettable firsthand account of a people's response to genocide and what it tells us about humanity. This remarkable audiobook chronicles what has happened in Rwanda and neighboring states since 1994, when the Rwandan government called on everyone in the Hutu majority to murder everyone in the Tutsi minority.
-
-
Things you'd never imagine
- By LEE on 12-27-19
What listeners say about The Assassins' Gate
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
- Drapeau
- 02-01-07
Highly Recommended
I've been making a sad trek through some of the books written about the disaster in Iraq. This is the best of the lot. Packer has masterfully combined several books into one: a long historical view, a devastating account of what went wrong, and a deeply empathetic portrait of several people whose lives have been changed by the war. To top it off, Richard Poe gives an outstanding reading performance.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
18 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Florafolly
- 09-27-08
Very observant
Packer is a very observant and astute journalist. The Assassin's gate will give you an excellent impression of the human experiences were like in Iraq and how strategic decisions affected them. Generally he is not partisan or bias.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Kenneth
- 03-24-07
If you liked/respected Fiasco...
This is one of those books that will require the author to rewrite the foreword for it with every re-release...I really think this (audio)book is a easily digestible but very scholarly work. The reader isn't too somber but serious enough to respect the subject matter. (If you can hear it there are a few instances where you can hear the reader take a sip of water and resume reading....kinda personal in a good way)....The chapter breakdown is great too...If only all audio books were broken up into as many sections.....
If you think there are too many books out on Iraq...read 3. This one, Imperial Life in the Emerald City, and Fiasco...I hear Cobra II is pretty epic...but c'mon it costs 2 credits!
All in all a great balanced read that provides a ideo/philosophical backdrop for what the (hell) the policy planners were thinking.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Anonymous User
- 05-26-07
Assassin's Gate
The book gives great insight to the Iraq conflict and should be read (or listened to) by all Americans. The book has stories about average Iraqis, and how their attitudes towards the American occupation changes overtime. Packer points out that as mistakes where made, trust on both sides was lost. The problems in Iraqi have been brewing for decades to centuries and will not be easily resolved.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Margaret C Britt
- 07-04-07
worth a second listen
If you want to understand what went wrong in Iraq, this is a good place to start. Packer begins in Iraq and backtracks to Washington where the neocons are busy trying to con the American people and stifle their critics. One of the most moving sections is devoted to a family who has lost a son in Iraq and is left wondering who and what to believe.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Michael Friedman
- 03-25-16
A Fine View of the War in Iraq
Part history, part memoir, this book details the utter folly of the Bush administration in underestimating and ultimately destroying the country of Iraq through lack of planning, unrealistic vision and lack of understanding of the consequences of the toppling of the Saddam regime. It is a sad commentary on the stupidity and ignorance of the top officials of the bush administration and a president who was oblivious to the reality of what he did and his utter failure to plan for the inevitable. Mr. Packer writes well, and his vision is more balanced than one would expect. That makes his commentary and conclusions even more poignant. The decade since this book was written has not diminished his conclusions.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- jr smith
- 03-28-09
At Last
The book was well written and it gave me a look into the war from all sides. I have a picture of the guards of said gate in a 20 x 30 size that was sent to us.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- C moore
- 05-31-16
great work!
this was a good book. I like the drama and the narration and story or expertly done. haunting and riveting Cigna on soldiers service and this time the same high level talks at the Whitehouse.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
- Michael
- 03-18-07
Lots of Facts for Subpoenas! Boring to Outsiders.
Ok. So Packer certainly confirmed my suspicions. Cheney got what he wanted -- a war in Iraq at all costs. No big surprise, I suppose.
What did surprise me was the detail he throws at the reader/listener -- it makes it tough for someone not to believe he did his research. But then I'm left wondering how could he be so intimately connected with SO many inside meetings and discussions. Obviously this guy is connected. Or he is filling in the gaps with his theories?
This book was unboubtedly written to settle a score -- set the record straight. He certainly will have made some enemies, and perhaps burned a few of his very important future-book-research sources.
However, I'm one of those 298 million that live OUTSIDE the (Washington) beltway, and admittedly not "in the know" about the who's who of Washington insiders. Accordingly, much of the facts of the book started to drone away in my ears and I found myself less and less likely to want to turn this tome back on. Being just a "Meet the Press" sort of political junkie, I don't really have enough of a personal knowledge of the cast of characters (and certainly not first-hand) as he does. If I WERE one of the 150 or so of the people he mentions, perhaps I would be more interested.
To be sure - I believe he lays out enough detail that a democratically controlled congress may finally have their way in nailing some of these arrogant so-and-so's (please, please get Cheney first!). There is ample fodder for subpoenas here. But that's the problem with the book - it is less of an engaging and riveting story and more of a listing of who to prosecute and in what order (which I applaud).
I rate this book a major bore -- unless you're a political fanatic (likely democratic), you may not finish it.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
14 people found this helpful