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When We Misread Dictators... Steve Coll on Saddam Hussein and the American Invasion of Iraq

Democracy Paradox

English - February 27, 2024 10:00 - 57 minutes - 39.6 MB
Government Science Social Sciences democracy political science politics philosophy political theory conservatism liberalism polarization constitution human rights Homepage Download Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed


As a writer I had the space to try to humanize him without sanitizing him. That was my mission: to try to see the world from behind his eyes in order to explain his otherwise inexplicable behavior.

Steve Coll

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A full transcript is available at www.democracyparadox.com.

Steve Coll is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist who has served as President and CEO of New America and the Dean of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He is currently a staff writer at The New Yorker. His most recent book is The Achilles’ Trap: Saddam Hussein, the CIA, and the Origins of America’s Invasion of Iraq.

Key Highlights

Introduction - 0:20Saddam Hussein - 2:56Iran-Iraq War - 10:22WMD - 27:062003 American Invasion - 46:03

Key Links

The Achilles’ Trap: Saddam Hussein, the CIA, and the Origins of America’s Invasion of Iraq by Steve Coll

How Iraq was Lost” by Robert Kaplan in The New Statesman (Book Review of The Achilles' Trap)

Read more from Steve Coll at The New Yorker

Democracy Paradox Podcast

Robert Kaplan on the Politics of the Past and Future of the Greater Middle East

Steven Simon on American Foreign Policy in the Middle East including Iran and the Wars in Iraq

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