David

The book starts out slow for a Ringo sequel, but all that time is spent introducing two new main characters. There is a bit of over-lap with the first book to introduce the new characters, then the book takes off into new areas. If you're not a Ringo fan, then this book isn't for you. I've listened to all his books, and this one is one of the better ones.

The book does a great job of pointing out the failures of the Bush Administration's attempt to remake Iraq after the war. Iraqi industry was more of a joke than we thought, and all the money put into updating many things, such as their stock exchange, went to waste when they reverted back to the old ways they knew. The author presents conversations he heard as second or third hand accounts as if they were a first hand retelling which is rather misleading to the reader. His bias is obvious and the bias of those reporting conversations of Military Officers to him could pretty easily have leaked into the retelling of those conversations. Interpret those instances with a grain of salt. As to actual solid facts, the author did a very good job and did an excellent job with his observations of the American redevelopment failures in Iraq. I can say I'm a Conservative and have read a lot on the Second Persian Gulf War, and this book is one among those I would say are must reads even though I don't care for some misleading tactics of the author. Another book I'd recommend on the subject is John Keegan's "The Iraq War". Keegan is a renowned British Military History and his book cover's Saddam's rise to power through his downfall. This book then does a fair job covering everything that was not included in Keegans book, as in what happened after the war.

Intriguing Alternative Perspective

I won't state one so I don't spoil anything, but in general, my favorite scene were when the main characters were trying to figure out each others angles and if the other could be trusted.

The book is similar to what the fall of the USSR was like for people. Russian's lives were dominated by government their whole lives, and once it fell, they had freedoms but didn't know what to do with them. Take the make characters as Ukrainians that have just left the USSR but have to fear Russia's heavy handed tactics that are not limited to economic or political aggression.

This author has no idea what he is saying. I've listened to about 8 hours so far, and he contradicts himself repeatedly. He frequently states such bad things are solely done by the Right in German, then two sentences later states the left did is some too. He even goes so far as to simply very complex political movements as Right and Left, but you can't cut things that easily. The Nazis were very nationalist, which is right, but also very socialist, which is left.

Evans refers to a an author named Pretzel, but doesn't mention that Pretzel wrote under the name Sebastian Haffner and fails to cite the name of the book. The book by Pretzel that Evans refers to is called "Defying Hitler," which I've read and is an amazing book. It's very clear that both Nationalists (right wing) and Communists (left wing) both joined the Nazi movement if Evans ever bothered to read the book he cites. The Nazis were known to preach "National Communism" as part of their movement compared to "International Communism" of the Soviets. Soviet Communism was an international movement, and the Nazis liked the idea, but wanted such a system on a National level. This blending of Right-wing Nationalism and Left-wing Socialism/Communism is a concept that Evans completely skips.

He also states very clearly he didn't want to be political, and would try his best to keep things simple and unbiased. He then mentions that his book is relevant to events at the time of it's publishing (Bush is president). He lumps every bad person as right wing, and all the good people as left wing. I only bought this book because of a sale, and now I'm disappointed I did so. If you want a real account of the rise of the Third Reich, listen to "Defying Hitler" by Sebastian Haffner.

(I majored in History and read "Defying Hitler" in college and had to write a subsequent paper on it)

The first 2 chapters of the book are boring,but once you get out of those, it's awesome.

A great read of the Iraq War from a British perspective.

The book was very interesting in the arguments the author makes about fascism and the left. His main argument is that it is crazy to relate Bush to Hitler because Hitler has more incommon with any left-wing whacko. Lefties are socialists, and Hitler was just as far left as they are.

This book debunks a lot of "studies" that find discrimination by linking it all to various statistical slights of hand. Professor Sowell goes indepth with his explanations of various cultural arguments. Warning, may persaude more liberal readers that their die-hard beliefs are wrong through the application of variables such as education and working hours to disprove many racial and sexist arguments made about our current times.

There were many things that have been forgotten about the Constitution, and this book really helps to bring those facts to life.