Alarming Female

Just in case you missed it, Jon Stewart had the most amazing interview last week with Ali Allawi, former Iraqi Minister of Defense and Finance and senior advisor to the prime minister of Iraq. Allawi has written a book, The Occupation of Iraq: Winning the War, Losing the Peace described in the publisher’s comments thusly—

The Occupation of Iraq examines what the United States did and didn’t know at the time of the invasion, the reasons for the confused and contradictory policies that were enacted, and the emergence of the Iraqi political class during the difficult transition process. The book tracks the growth of the insurgency and illuminates the complex relationships among Sunnis, Shias, and Kurds. Bringing the discussion forward to the reconfiguration of political forces in 2006, Allawi provides in these pages the clearest view to date of the modern history of Iraq and the invasion that changed its course in unpredicted ways.

Jon Stewart points out it how handy it would have been had Allawi written this book before the invasion (*grin*) but also that it seems, in all our searching for WMDs, we could have gone in more informed as to the political nuances of the area. You’d think, wouldn’t you?

At the end of the interview, in Part II, Stewart brings up the Virginia Tech killings and Americans’ grief processes and asks Allawi how Iraqis deal, almost daily, with killings on this scale. It’s a very poignant moment, handled beautifully (as only JS can) and definitely worth a look.

Part One here

Part Two here