Ali Allawi, a former high ranking official in several Iraqi government posts, has written a book that traces the successes and failures of the occupation. It has garnished the praise of reviewers as an essential book for anyone wanting to know what went wrong and how the occupation should move forward.

Rajiv Chandrasekaran praises Allawi’s book for adding an important new voice to the debate over what went wrong in Iraq and how we should move forward: “Allawi's book is not simply a polemic. It is a thorough account of the effort to govern and reconstruct Iraq as told by an Iraqi who was deeply involved in the process.”

Fouad Ajami writes that Ali Allawi’s book is an oasis in the desert of books on Iraq: “Here, finally, is a man of Iraq who knows its history and its wounds. He can write with deep understanding about its poets, its intellectuals, its clerics.”

Jim Simpson praises Allawi for arguing that the U.S. should have been more aggressive against the Ba’athists.

Amir Taheri writes that Allawi’s book swings from one perspective to another, from lauding the war to cursing the occupation. It is a book that shows the Iraq conflict for what it is in all its shades of gray.”

David Corn calls Allawi’s book a “stinging indictment” of the Bush administration’s handling of the war. If Allawi is right, Corn says, “Bush is asking US soldiers to sacrifice lives and limbs not for liberty and security but for a paradox.”