The Prince of the Marshes: And Other Occupational Hazards of a Year in Iraq

Description

In August 2003, at the age of thirty, Rory Stewart took a taxi from Jordan to Baghdad. A Farsi-speaking British diplomat who had recently completed an epic walk from Turkey to Bangladesh, he was soon appointed deputy governor of Amarah and then Nasiriyah, provinces in the remote, impoverished marsh regions of southern Iraq. He spent the next eleven months negotiating hostage releases, holding elections, and splicing together some semblance of an infrastructure for a population of millions teetering on the brink of civil war. The Prince of the Marshes tells the story of Stewart's year. As a participant he takes us inside the occupation and beyond the Green Zone, introducing us to a colorful cast of Iraqis and revealing the complexity and fragility of a society we struggle to understand. By turns funny and harrowing, moving and incisive, it amounts to a unique portrait of heroism and the tragedy that intervention inevitably courts in the modern age. Content: ""Front Cover"" ""Front Flap"" ""Front Matter"" ""Half Title"" ""Also by Rory Stewart"" ""Title"" ""Copyright"" ""Dedication"" ""Contents"" ""Maps"" ""Foreword"" ""Dramatis Personae"" ""Timeline"" ""Introduction"" ""Capitalist-Imperialist-Crusader"" ""Waking Up Dead"" ""Mordor"" ""Part One: The Prince of the Marshes"" ""The British Camp"" ""Regeneration"" ""The General"" ""Civil Affairs"" ""Persia"" ""Ice Cream"" ""Baklava"" ""Pagoda"" ""The Supervisory Committee"" ""High Command"" ""Part Two: Death of a Hero"" ""Friday Prayers"" ""And Would Not Stay for an Answer""""Resolutions"" ""Blood Money"" ""Resignation"" ""Summit"" ""Part Three: Iraqi Pastoral"" ""Al-Mutanabi Street"" ""Rural Rides"" ""Deputy"" ""The Paths That Lead to Destruction"" ""Import Substitution Industrialization"" ""Jobs"" ""Mutiny"" ""Sheikhs"" ""Precautions"" ""The Islamic Call"" ""Sadrines"" ""Majority and Minority"" ""Poet"" ""Our Successors"" ""Departures"" ""Trust"" ""A New Chief"" ""Death by the Office Wall"" ""Credibility"" ""Part Four: Nasiriyah"" ""Arrivals"" ""Morning Meeting"" ""A Second Governor"" ""Sage of the Assembly""""Mudhif"" ""Ali Zeidi"" ""Police"" ""Echoes from the Frontiers"" ""Kidnapped"" ""Rewarding Friends"" ""Foreign Elements"" ""Return to the Green Zone"" ""The Rule of Law"" ""Part Five: Besieged"" ""The Quick Reaction Force"" ""Kabul"" ""Reprise"" ""Final Days"" ""Leaders"" ""Last Days in Amara"" ""Handing Over"" ""Afterword"" ""Epilogue"" ""Acknowledgments"" ""Back Flap"" ""Back Cover"" ""Spine""