{"product_id":"we-meant-well-how-i-helped-lose-the-battle-for-the-hearts-and-minds-of-the-iraqi-people-american-empire-project-0805094369","title":"We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People (American Empire Project)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eISBN:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0805094369\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/strong\u003e Van Buren, Peter\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCondition:\u003c\/strong\u003e New\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFrom a State Department insider, the first account of our blundering efforts to rebuild Iraq--a shocking and rollicking true-life tale of Americans abroadCharged with rebuilding Iraq, would you spend taxpayer money on a sports mural in Baghdad's most dangerous neighborhood to promote reconciliation through art? How about an isolated milk factory that cannot get its milk to market? Or a pastry class training women to open cafés on bombed-out streets without water or electricity?According to Peter Van Buren, we bought all these projects and more in the most expensive hearts-and-minds campaign since the Marshall Plan. We Meant Well is his eyewitness account of the civilian side of the surge--that surreal and bollixed attempt to defeat terrorism and win over Iraqis by reconstructing the world we had just destroyed. Leading a State Department Provincial Reconstruction Team on its quixotic mission, Van Buren details, with laser-like irony, his yearlong encounter with pointless projects, bureaucratic fumbling, overwhelmed soldiers, and oblivious administrators secluded in the world's largest embassy, who fail to realize that you can't rebuild a country without first picking up the trash.Darkly funny while deadly serious, We Meant Well is a tragicomic voyage of ineptitude and corruption that leaves its writer--and readers--appalled and disillusioned but wiser.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Mia Karts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51907725426976,"sku":"NEW0805094369","price":17.75,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0980\/7426\/3840\/files\/71ydkFNzK2L.jpg?v=1782248004","url":"https:\/\/miakarts.com\/products\/we-meant-well-how-i-helped-lose-the-battle-for-the-hearts-and-minds-of-the-iraqi-people-american-empire-project-0805094369","provider":"Miakarts Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}