In this unprecedented account, The Washington Post's former Baghdad bureau chief takes us into the Green Zone, headquarters for the American occupation of Iraq. In this bubble separated from wartime realities, the task of reconstructing a devastated nation competes with the distractions of a Little America--a half-dozen bars, a disco, a shopping mall--much of it run by Halliburton. The country is put into the hands of inexperienced twentysomethings chosen for their Republican Pary loyalty. Ignoring what Iraqis say they want or need, the team pursues irrelevant neoconservative solutions and pie-in-the-sky policies instead of rebuilding looted buildings and restoring electricity. Their almost comic initiatives anger the locals and fuel the insurgency.

Unabridged. Compact discs. Subtitle from container.