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Earlier today, I offered some recommended reading for the presidential candidates on domestic reform and promised I'd lean on some friends to cover other issue areas. So much as I'd like to believe that health care will be the priority in 2009, Iraq (and national security) will almost certainly dominate the president's first days. So I reached out to Spencer Ackerman, the best national security reporter/punk rock obsessive I know, for a couple recommendations in that area. He replied:
Night Draws Near: Iraq's People in the Shadow of America's WarIf you think he missed anything, suggest it in comments. More topic areas to come.by Anthony Shadid. The best accessible book about how the Iraqi people experience the war.Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA
by Tim Weiner. About the CIA, and more broadly offers valuable lessons about imperialism.Making the Corps
by Tom Ricks. Written during the 1990s, it's the first book-length treatment of the growing cultural divisions between civilians and the military. Will be crucial for understanding how traumatizing both the Iraq war and *withdrawal* will be for the military -- and how to mitigate that trauma.Leaderless Jihad: Terror Networks in the Twenty-First Century
by Marc Sageman; along with Architect of Global Jihad: The Life of Al Qaeda Strategist Abu Mus'ab Al-Suri
by Brynjar Lia. In a nutshell, these books explain where al-Qaeda is coming from, how it's changing and why, and where it's going next.Extra credit:The Old Social Classes & The Revolutionary Movement In Iraq
by Hanna Batatu. Many years ago I asked Juan Cole what I should read if I want to understand Iraq and its people without western preconceptions. This is it. It's MASSIVE -- well over 1000 pages -- and I won't pretend I've finished it, but it's a soup-to-nuts history of the cohesions, cleavages and shifts in Iraq's 80-year existence. Published in the 70s, I think.