Book-gate

It has become a pattern: Fail in Iraq, write a book. Bush, the commander-in-chief, had Bob Woodward do it for him. Janice Karpinsky, the Abu Ghraib commander, did it. Judy Miller, the WMD cheerleader, is doing it. Now comes Paul Bremer's entry. Under Bremer's leadership, the post-invasion government of Iraq, the Coalition Provisional Authority, squandered Iraqi goodwill, wasted billions of reconstruction dollars and saw the insurgency grow from a few disoriented generals to an international movement. Bremer did manage to sign a series of decrees granting civil liberties; after America destroyed the Iraqi government, economy and infrastructure, Bremer essentially offered the country the freedom to fix itself. In his book, My Year in Iraq, the career diplomat makes an impassioned if not wholly persuasive case that the fiasco wasn't his fault. He may have a point about his most famous gaffe, disbanding the Iraqi army: Most of the resulting problems could have been avoided if the U.S. military had actually gotten around to training a replacement force. Seems that General Tommy Franks was too busy at the time—working on his book. Bremer flogs his book at noon at the Fairmont Hotel, 1717 N. Akard St. (tickets $50), and at 5 p.m. at the Ed Landreth Auditorium, 2800 S. University Drive in Fort Worth (tickets $20). Call 214-965-8400.
Fri., Jan. 27, 5 p.m.