{"product_id":"we-meant-well-peter-van-buren-9780805096811","title":"We Meant Well","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"One diplomat's darkly humorous and ultimately scathing assault on just about everything the military and State Department have done--or tried to do--since the invasion of Iraq. The title says it all.\"--\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCharged 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 caf s on bombed-out streets that lack water and electricity?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs Peter Van Buren shows, we bought all these projects and more in the most expensive hearts-and-minds campaign since the Marshall Plan. \u003ci\u003eWe Meant Well\u003c\/i\u003e 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA work of \"scathing, gallows humor\" (\u003ci\u003eThe Boston Globe\u003c\/i\u003e), \u003ci\u003eWe Meant Well\u003c\/i\u003e is a tragicomic voyage of ineptitude and corruption that leaves its writer--and readers--appalled and disillusioned, but wiser.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Peter Van Buren\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0805096817\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780805096811\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e St. Martins Press-3PL\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 08\/21\/2012\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 269\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.57lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.26h x 5.57w x 0.77d","brand":"Peter Van Buren","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":43926242033919,"sku":"9780805096811","price":27.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/products\/img_070e5a6f-64dc-4fe4-94df-5b5ed1c761a2.jpg?v=1681081986","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/we-meant-well-peter-van-buren-9780805096811","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}