It's been a long while since I mentioned my book, Still Broken, but it continues to garner positive attention and reviews, and I imagine some of you missed it the first time around, so let me encourage our fine readers once again to check it out if you haven't yet. It's a first-hand account of my time working for the Defense Intelligence Agency, essentially the spy arm of the Department of Defense, as an Iraq analyst both at the Pentagon and in Baghdad. It discusses the continued manipulation and mismanagement of intelligence, at home and in the field, and is the only ground-level book I'm aware of written by an intel analyst who worked on Iraq. A lot of people think we've moved past the failures that led to 9/11 and the WMD debacle, but not only are those problems continuing, they're being institutionalized. Not good.
The latest book attention comes via the New York Review of Books, where Thomas Powers, a true expert on intelligence issues and a fine writer and reporter, includes it in an exploration of the war in a historical context. It's sort of a quasi-review, more oriented toward discussion than evaluation, and there are a bunch of books listed at the top, but mine is really the only one that's specifically addressed in detail. I'm flattered that it made it into NYRB -- almost certainly the premier literary/intellectual journal in the nation and a famously insular publication not necessarily prone to featuring a young, inexperienced, and (let's be honest) unsophisticated author such as myself. So it's pretty cool, and the entire piece is well worth a read.
So again, check it out if you haven't already, and if you have read it, consider reviewing it on Amazon so other people know it's worth their time as well.
I recently spent some time chatting with Spencer Ackerman, of the Washington Independent and the American Prospect, about Still Broken, and it ended up being easily the most fun I've had talking about my new book. I've completely lifted their headline for this post, since it's perfect, and I can't imagine you need any more motivation to head over and check it out.
Still, if you need an excerpt to entice you, head below the fold -- it even explains the Joe Klein blurb everybody keeps asking about in the comments . . .
SA: In the book, you admirably confess to your bad taste in music. ("My work was fueled by steady doses of Evanescence, Linkin Park, Sarah McLachlan[!], Metallica, the Dixie Chicks, and the like.") First, kudos for surviving the savage beatings you must have endured from your colleagues. But you also disclose that you wrote an e-mail to friends and family that "took the format of matching Kelly Clarkson lyrics to my observations" about Iraq.
Somehow, though, those lyrics didn't make it into the book. Fess up: What does Kelly Clarkson tell us about Iraq?
AR: I'm glad you brought this up, because it allows me to address two very important issues. First and foremost, Kelly Clarkson has plenty to tell us about an infinite number of topics, from the mundane to the critical. Can't say enough about the talent there, and she helped keep me sane in Baghdad. I'm obviously not afraid to acknowledge my affection for pop music in all its glory, which brings me to the second point, about the advance praise on the back cover from Joe Klein, who jokes about my bad taste in the midst of a very kind endorsement of the book, saying, "And while Rossmiller demonstrates, repeatedly, that his taste in music really needs an upgrade, he also proves to be an engaging, skillful, and funny writer." Joe takes a lot of flack on the internets, but for the (surprisingly many) people who have asked about that blurb, it is indeed a reference to the text, obviously, and all in good fun—and it demonstrated he had actually read the whole thing, which was a nice compliment in itself.
To answer your question more specifically, though, I'm very pleased to present here, exclusively to TAP Online, a few brief excerpts of the original, unedited version of that chapter!
For our Michigan readers, just a heads up that I'll be doing a reading/signing/discussion with my new book, Still Broken, today at the Borders in downtown Ann Arbor. It's at 632 Liberty St, a block off of State St, at 7:00 p.m. Free coffee and snacks, they say, so come on over and introduce yourself! There should be a good crowd, a fun Q&A, and a nice mid-week break from the grind.
Again: 7 p.m., Ann Arbor MI, at Borders on 632 Liberty St. Signing and discussion of Still Broken: A Recruit's Inside Account of Intelligence Failures from Baghdad to the Pentagon. See you there!
And, of course, treat this as an open thread.
UPDATE: Just for the heck of it, this hits wayyyyyy too close to home.
This came together a little bit last minute, so I apologize for the late notice, but I'm extremely pleased to announce that Richard Clarke, former counter-terrorism coordinator for two presidential administrations and vocal critic of the Bush approach to security, will be hosting the discussion of my new book, Still Broken, this afternoon over at FireDogLake.com at 5 p.m.
The book recounts my time as an intelligence officer working for the Defense Intelligence Agency, essentially the spy arm of the Department of Defense, and explains how not only are the problems with intelligence analysis that led to things like 9/11 and the WMD debacle continuing, they're becoming institutionalized. Rewarding good news rather than accurate news is an issue that's becoming a permanent part of a broken intelligence process, and while I experienced that at the bottom of the process, Clarke saw how and why that kind of culture was created from the very top. He has been an insightful and courageous voice on terrorism, FISA and wiretapping issues, and Iraq, and I hope you'll head over to FireDogLake.com at 5 p.m. today to participate in the conversation about Still Broken.
A comprehensive, expansive report from the Rand Corporation -- a report commissioned by the Pentagon, no less -- details just how screwed up our political, military, and intelligence policies are when it comes to insurgencies. The report describes U.S. actions in the Muslim world as "at best inadequate, at worst counter-productive, and, on the whole, infeasible." We are nearly five years into the war in Iraq. Five years. We're not getting it right. We're not winning. And the government isn't being honest about either of these facts.
These misjudgments and mistakes are costing hundreds of thousands of people their lives. I care about these issues because I think it's important to cut through the lies and the misdirection. This kind of thing is why it's so frustrating when people try to tell me the surge is "working." If a person has cancer and a cut, and you put a band-aid on the cut, the person isn't cured. People deserve to know the root causes of the problems with our policies, and this report apparently really gets to the meat of things.
Of course, if you want to know more about these problems from somebody who experienced them up close and personal, you should buy my book! It hit stores yesterday and is currently hovering around number 1 or 2 on Amazon for books on Intelligence as well as on the Iraq War. (You didn't really think I'd get through a post without a plug, did you? Buy it for yourself, your friends, your congressional delegation, and anybody else who could use some honesty about Iraq and intel.)
Writing a book is a funny thing, especially for someone who has a large audience of readers every day. I'll probably reach more people in a week on this site than I will with the book, and yet the book is a much more effective way to permeate the "mainstream" dialogue on the issues of Iraq and intelligence -- issues which I consider to be among the most important we face today. The inimitable Glenn Greenwald put it best when discussing his own book:
I wrote the book for the same reason I blog: because I believe that arguments can be advanced, evidence marshaled and facts revealed which can serve as an antidote to our deeply dysfunctional political discourse and, through reason-based (though impassioned) persuasion, constructively influence our political process. A book's success can force media outlets to provide a platform for the book's arguments and to expand the range of voices and perspectives which are heard.
The fact that I was able to write about what I saw and did first-hand makes it especially relevant, I think, and it's still too rare that progressive voices have access to the opinion-making structure. Of course, Glenn has also weighed in on my book specifically, saying:
A. J. Rossmiller has emerged as one of the most insightful and sophisticated foreign-policy commentators in our country. He combines a passionate patriotism and irreplaceable real-life experience with the U.S. military in documenting the profound corruption and ineptitude driving our Iraq policy. Rossmiller served his country nobly during the war, and does so again with this important and moving new book.
If this kind of perspective is important to you -- and especially if you think it's a perspective worth sharing with others -- please consider picking up a copy.
The first public excerpt of my new book, Still Broken, which recounts my time as an intelligence officer for the Defense Department, where I worked on (and in) Iraq for the Defense Intelligence Agency. The book tells the story of my time there, encountering the kind of political manipulation and incompetence that continue to cripple our efforts against terrorism and in Iraq. I hope you'll check it out, and this passage doesn't really need any introduction:
The first sign of trouble came during the transition from the outgoing personnel to our group, their replacements. For the life of us, we couldn’t figure out what the hell they had been doing.
“It’s a database, see, with all the names and locations of potential shithead activity in this area, and it’s taken a lot of time to develop, and—”
“Okay, okay, but how much actionable material have you produced?”
“...Actionable?”
The whole point of a counterinsurgency mission is to utilize actionable intelligence, which is basically what it sounds like: intelligence you can act on, either strategically or, more likely, at the tactical level. In-country Defense Department intelligence is heavily weighted toward supporting the shooters, but the group we replaced seemed to be providing a circular function, in that they produced materials for . . . one another. Nothing was broadly important enough to pass up to leadership, and nothing was specific enough to pass down to units.
It became apparent that our assignment was not the counterinsurgency mission we’d anticipated. To some extent we were set up as a new and unique group from DIA. Our leadership told us that we were the largest cohesive DIA group to deploy to Iraq, as previous volunteers had been sent to fill individual slots in a wide variety of operations. We were supposed to be the connection between the field and the DIA element in DC, and we had just spent months learning about the history of the insurgency, beneficial and ineffective COIN techniques, and the intricacies of Iraqi tribes, religious groups, militias, and political organizations. This knowledge was supposed to make us a crack team of area experts, able to assist action units in the front and support the Iraq team in the rear (back in Washington). We were geared up to apply social network theory, create a better understanding of the insurgency and its accelerants, use a variety of analytical tools that would help identify insurgents and pinpoint the most crucial members of various groups, and employ our strategic acumen to assist policymakers. We were the heavy hitters, DIA’s contribution to the Combined Intelligence Operations Center or CIOC (pronounced sy-ock) -- the hub for U.S. intelligence in Iraq. But when we settled in, we realized that there was basically no mission for us. . . .
NOTE FROM JOHN: AJ and I accidentally posted at the same time, so I buried his post about his new book, out tomorrow. I'm bumping it so that folks can check it out. As you already know, AJ is a great writer, and thinker, about defense issues, and especially Iraq. He's part of the generation that was inspired by 9/11 to public service (he went to work at the Pentagon as an intelligence officer covering Iraq during the war), and then disillusioned by the Bush administration's failures. The book comes out from a Random House subsidiary tomorrow, and we're trying to get as many pre-orders in as possible, it helps the rankings. So please do check out the book, and if the spirit moves you, pick one up - it's only $16 hard-cover.
My book, Still Broken: A Recruit's Inside Account of Intelligence Failures, from Baghdad to the Pentagon, is out tomorrow, and I hope you'll consider buying it. If you order today, you'll get it by the end of the week, and I think readers will find it engaging and enlightening. It tells the story of my time at DIA, both in Baghdad and at the Pentagon, where the intelligence process is corrupted by political influences and incompetence -- meaning that the problems that led to 9/11 and the WMD debacle are not only continuing, but in fact becoming institutionalized.
A bit of background: I began writing for AMERICAblog nearly two years ago. After leaving my position as an Intelligence Officer for the Department of Defense, working on (and in) Iraq for the Defense Intelligence Agency, I wasn't sure what to do. I had left without having lined up my next job, which was a little scary, but I simply couldn't say in the politicized and manipulated process that I ultimately came to believe was hurting our nation's security. I emailed several progressive bloggers, and several progressive think tanks, to offer my help and expertise in the service of reality-based Iraq and foreign policy analysis; I wanted to contribute to the dialogue from a position of having experienced and seen much of what other people could only speculate about.
John and Joe were the only people I heard back from. We got together for coffee -- with John later telling me he was totally weirded out by my "I'm a former intel officer, just writing to say I appreciate your stuff and would be happy to chat if you're interested" email -- and what was supposed to be a 30 minute introduction turned into a two hour conversation. A few days later, I was writing for this site, and I've loved every day of it ever since.
I've been lucky, in many ways: I've been able to gain a platform on these issues over the course of the past two years. On the "establishment" side, I'm a Fellow with the (fantastic) National Security Network think tank, and, as of tomorrow, a published author. And as y'all know, I'm also a card-carrying member of the blogosphere, regularly writing here and occasionally contributing to HuffPo, the American Prospect (and its blog TAPPED), the Guardian, and other leading news outlets. It's a pleasure and a privilege to have this kind of audience, particularly in service of adding to the conversation about what I believe is the most important political issue of our time.
My book will, I hope, allow the reality-based message on Iraq to reach even more people. Again, Still Broken tells the story of my time at DIA, both in Baghdad and at the Pentagon, and it's an easy read. I'll have more details, reviews, and comments throughout today and this week, and there's tons of information about it already at the website, www.StillBroken.com. But you all know me, you know my work, and you know it'll be good. So check it out.
