Just finished reading Peter Van Buren’s “We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People.” You know, the book that is causing such a kerfluffle at State and in the FS blogging community.
What – you haven’t heard about it yet? Click on over to Diplopundit to follow the Van Buren Chronicles. Or, visit the author’s blog (but maybe not on your State computer, hm?)
My two cents: this is a great read. Van Buren is a naturally talented, engaging writer. I read the whole book in one go on a road trip, because I couldn’t put it down. If you have ever read P.J. O’Rourke’s “Holidays in Hell” you’ll like this book, though Van Buren is not quite as brilliantly snarky as O’Rourke (who is?) I suspect he has read a lot of Bill Bryson in his time, as well. Once he’s done taking State to the cleaners, if he decides to write about his adventures in other countries, I’d look forward to reading them.
In short, Van Buren writes in a concise, journalistic style with plenty of personal observations thrown in. Many of these are clever and darkly funny. (“The two Colonels were to profanity what Monet was to oils.”) Every now and then, he gets a little “literary.” This doesn’t always work, but give the man a break: it’s his first book, after all.
On another level, it’s an especially poignant story if you have ever lived in one or more of the following:
- a third world country
- a current or recovering dictatorship
- a strongly Muslim country
If I were reviewing this book formally, for a wider audience, I’d explain further. But since this is a Foreign Service spouse blog, and read almost entirely by other people in the FS community, I can sum it up like this: if you can check one or more of the above, you will totally get it. (I can check numbers 1 and 2.) The many stories in the book that would seem like they must be fiction to most people will ring absolutely true to you.
And that’s the major point of the book: that the people who made decisions regarding Iraq from day one had no idea what the hell they were doing. Those who did have relevant experience with countries like that were ignored–occasionally even accused of disloyalty and treason for questioning The Mission.
Even today, as Van Buren notes, there is tremendous pressure to serve in Iraq, Afghanistan or Pakistan in order to advance one’s career at State. That’s why he “volunteered” for Iraq, and from what I’ve seen and heard, that’s the only reason most people volunteer to go there these days. It’s just a box to be checked on the way to promotion and/or a cushy follow-on post.
Peter Van Buren is being called similar names for writing honestly about his experiences serving in what has become a self-justifying political exercise. He has had his security clearance revoked and has been escorted out of the State Department and put on “administrative leave.”
Now, I do not think it is possible that he didn’t expect at least some of this to happen. To say that this is all completely unexpected because he followed the letter of the clearance process is just disingenuous (though it certainly seems that State dropped the ball, bureaucratically speaking.) Heck, I’m not even an officer, and I could have told him he was asking for trouble.
My take is that he simply decided it was worth it. And it may have been. If you’re going to torpedo your career, you should have a good reason. And this is a story that needed to be told. I wish Peter Van Buren all the best in what appears to be his second career as a writer. And I hope that some day, a person in a position to make a difference will have read and carefully considered his story before pulling the trigger on a similar crusade mission.
I agree with you on all points. Having lived in Iraq, i understand the culture, including the never say no bit that probably caused so much trouble with the decisions we had to make. READ THIS BOOK! and good luck to Peter. I expect that he can become a CNN specialist with ease now.