"Aaron Glantz’s courageous, unembedded journalism explains the reality of the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq with a clarity and per spective sorely lacking in the mainstream media. He incisively cuts through the fog of war and Pentagon chatter, getting close to the story, as all journalists should. How America Lost Iraq is essential reading as the saber rattling in Washington continues."

--AMY GOODMAN,

host of Democracy Now! and author of

The Excebtion to the Rulers

As a reporter for the staunchly antiwar Pacifica Radio, twenty-seven-year-old Aaron Glantz had spent much of early 2003 warning of catastrophe if the United States invaded Iraq. But, as he watched the statue of Saddam topple, he wondered whether he was mistaken: In interviews with regular Iraqis, he found wide support for the invasion.

Then, public opinion changed.

The U.S.-led Authority and its corporate contractors failed to restore the basic necessities of daily life, such as electricity and drinking water. Ravaged by looters, the streets remained unsafe. Regular Iraqis throughout the country were imprisoned and held incommunicado-- many at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison-- on the slightest suspicion. And then in spring 2004, the U.S. military declared war on the anti-Saddam cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, and simultaneously launched an unprovoked bombing campaign against the city of Fallujah, killing hundreds of innocent civilians and dramatically increasing support for an armed resistance. The U.S. attacks confounded many opponents of the old regime and plunged the nation into chaos...

PART ONE: AFTER THE FALL

1. Entering After the Fall 

2. The Unpopular Resistance 

3. Nightly Arguments 

4. Civilian Casualties 

5. A Dysfunctional Occupation 

PART TWO: THE OCCUPATION DRAGS ON

6. Welcome to Iraqi Kurdistan 

7. Peshmerea in Control, Refugees in Camps 

8. Changing Attitudes About Terror

9. America Becomes the Enemy 

10. Fundamentalists Unite 

PART THREE: WHEN AMERICA LOSTIRAQ

11. The Closure of Al-Hawza Newspaper 

12. The War Begins 

13. Apache Helicopter Strikes 

14. It’s Not Safe to Go Outside 

15. America’s Mass Grave 

16. Kidnap Dramas

PART FOUR: BRUTALITY BECOMES THE NORM

17. Return from Kurdistan 

18. Brutality Becomes the Norm 

19. Dead Sheiks in Babylon 

20. Victory Rises Above a Mass Grave 

PART FIVE: TOWARD A BETTER FUTURE

21. Kindergarten Cop 

EPILOGUE: Elections and Beyond 

APPENDIX: Historic and Political Figures