The Prince of the Marshes: And Other Occupational Hazards of a Year in Iraq, by Rory Stewart

This excellent review by William Grimes in the New York Times captures well my thoughts on the book by Rory Stewart describing his brief but eventful time in post-invasion Iraq from 2003 to 2004. In his book, Stewart describes his experiences as Coalition Provisional Authority Deputy Governor of the Iraqi province of Maysan and Senior Advisor in the province of Dhi Qar for one year starting in August 2003.

Stewart was 30 years old. Like so many other members of the CPA, he was too young, too inexperienced, and too temporary to be effective. The whole CPA idea -- the whole post invasion cluster fuck -- was illustrative of how the United States of America under George W. Bush blundered into the greatest strategic mistake in the history of U.S. military affairs.

The Unraveling, by Emma Sky

I completed this book in January 2016. I felt the book was less an analysis than a personal memoir and as such was shallow in its treatment of the factors and faults leading to the disintegration of stability post-invasion.

Emma Sky admits she is "unqualified" for the role she's given, but according to her own account, she becomes indispensable, although it's never clear exactly what her role is. But she was well enough thought of that General Odierno requested that she become his political advisor in 2006.

Sky is critical of the withdrawal of U.S. troops in 2011 under the Obama Administration, but at his August 2015 retirement ceremony, General Odierno said,

"It is frustrating to look at what has happened inside of Iraq," he said. "I believe that a couple years ago in 2010-11, we had it in a place that was really headed in the right direction. Violence was down, the economy was growing, the politics were OK."

However, "the political factions just simply weren't able to work together, and based on that, people became frustrated. When people become frustrated, they tend to turn to violence if there is no other way for them to get their point," he said.

Odierno said it was impossible to gauge whether the Obama administration could have tried harder to negotiate a deal with the Baghdad government to have U.S. troops stay after 2011.

"I don't think it's black and white. I think it is gray," he said. "I think the military options we conducted provided an opportunity for us to be successful" but "I remind everybody that us leaving at the end of 2011 was negotiated in 2008 by the Bush administration."

"And that was always the plan," he added. "We had promised that we would respect their sovereignty, and so I think based on that, that was always our plan."
Sky's book was reviewed by Christopher Dickey in the New York Times Sunday Book Review. A less flattering review was written by Anakana Schofield in The Irish Times. I tend to agree with this review, especially when it comes to Sky's writing.

A excellent short synopsis of the "Second Iraq War" can be found in the Enclyclopaedia Britannia.

Dying of a Broken Heart

In Japan, the small ceramic pots (takotsubo) are attached to a single, longline like the hooks used in longline fishing. The line is lowered in the sea and left on the sea floor, where they sit for a day or two like vacant homes for octopus to inhabit. Sometimes the pots are 'furnished' with squid eggs.

The takotsubo happen to have the same, or a similar shape as the human heart during a contraction. And the "broken heart syndrome" was first described in Japan and that is why it was given the name, "Takotsubo."

 Left, X-ray of the heart during the contraction phase from a patient with takotsubo. Note the distinctive shape with a narrow neck and ballooned lower portion (arrows), which contracts abnormally. Right, The Japanese takotsubo (ceramic pot used to trap octopus) has a shape that closely resembles that of the heart on the left. This image courtesy Dr Satoshi Kurisu, Hiroshima, Japan.

I was diagnosed with Takotsubo in March of 2013. But that's not what the paperwork called it. Instead, I was diagnosed with a myocardial infarction, caused by apical ballooning syndrome. Apical ballooning syndrome is also known as Takotsubo, which is also known as "Broken Heart Syndrome." And yes, you can die of a broken heart.

Among the Books I've Read in 2015

Some of these books have been reviewed on this blog.

Don't Listen

"Don't listen to the singing," his mother warned. "Whatever you do, don't listen."

She held his face with her two hands and stared into his eyes, large now with fright. "Promise me?"

He stammered out a promise. A promise in the end, that he could not keep.

The singing was so beautiful. A woman's voice, a young woman, perhaps a girl, her lovely voice floated out across the meadow delicately, like butterflies painting the air with a rainbow of colors. The words were strange, a language he did not understand, but felt, felt deep, deep inside.

He listened.

In Solidarity with France

Today the World Went Mad

Today the world went mad
and I rolled over and went back to sleep
Pulling the pillow over my head
Either to block out the screaming
Or smother myself

I had a hard time breathing
the smoke was thick as blood
Bullets whined about my head
Like the hummingbirds we saw
At Bamfield on the Vancouver Coast

They whirled around giant stands of Fuchsia
Delicately probing the pink and purple bells
That hung by their feet from
What was left of the balustrade
Along the courthouse balcony

All had been beheaded
and the bodies looked like the
Sides of beef that hung from
Hooks in my Uncle Sal's slaughterhouse
Where I worked summers as a kid

I remember cleaning the floors of the
Blood, grease and offal that littered
the street between the destroyed buildings
Where snipers or siddigues with cell phones
Waited to kill us with a bullet or bomb

Someday I want to wake up without
Thinking I died and went to hell
and this constant buzzing in my head
Isn't the drill they used to relieve
the pressure on my brain

What was left of it