About the book

Iraq: A New Direction ... Multi-Sector Area Development was written two years after the disastrous invasion of Iraq by coalition forces led by the USA. The book aimed to outline a strategy for peace using a methodology for rapid socio-economic progress that had been developed for implementation in other war torn areas of the world. The book was released prior to the publication of The Iraq Study Group Report: The Way Forward – A New Approach. The authors of the report were: Co-chair James Baker, Co-chair Lee H. Hamilton, Lawrence S. Eagleburger, Vernon E. Jordan, Jr., Edwin Meese III, Sandra Day O’Connor, Leon E. Panetta, William J. Perry, Charles S. Robb, and Alan K. Simpson

My book was published prior to the Baker-Hamilton Report so that my conclusions would not be influenced by its contents and conclusions. I expected the report, like so much of what has been done under the guidance of experts from the rich developed countries, to have little focus on what local people and organizations could do, but on what the internationals would do.

To be continued (September 15, 2011