{"product_id":"9781429995238","title":"We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA \u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e Best Nonfiction of 2011 title\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFrom a State Department insider, the first account of our blundering efforts to rebuild Iraq—a shocking and rollicking true-life tale of Americans abroad\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCharged with rebuilding Iraq, would you spend taxpayer money on a sports mural in Baghdad's most dangerous neighborhood to promote reconciliation through art? How about an isolated milk factory that cannot get its milk to market? Or a pastry class training women to open cafés on bombed-out streets without water or electricity?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAccording to Peter Van Buren, we bought all these projects and more in the most expensive hearts-and-minds campaign since the Marshall Plan. \u003ci\u003eWe Meant Well\u003c\/i\u003e is his eyewitness account of the civilian side of the surge—that surreal and bollixed attempt to defeat terrorism and win over Iraqis by reconstructing the world we had just destroyed. Leading a State Department Provincial Reconstruction Team on its quixotic mission, Van Buren details, with laser-like irony, his yearlong encounter with pointless projects, bureaucratic fumbling, overwhelmed soldiers, and oblivious administrators secluded in the world's largest embassy, who fail to realize that you can't rebuild a country without first picking up the trash.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDarkly funny while deadly serious, \u003ci\u003eWe Meant Well\u003c\/i\u003e is a tragicomic voyage of ineptitude and corruption that leaves its writer—and readers—appalled and disillusioned but wiser.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Holt, Henry \u0026 Company, Inc.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47153936400624,"sku":"9781429995238","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781429995238_p0.jpg?v=1763749497","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781429995238","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}