IMPERIAL LIFE IN THE EMERALD CITY Inside Iraq’s Green Zone

“The Green Zone” is the American military's heavily fortified and painstakingly Americanized home in the Saddam Hussein palace complex area of Baghdad—picture food franchises, sports bars, lots of pork and beef. The area soon acquired the moniker "the Emerald City," which refers to the fantasy world it contains, the major fantasy being that U.S./Iraq policy is working. Narrator Ray Porter delivers the author’s story of hubris, corruption, excess, and destruction (courtesy of the Bush Administration and Halliburton et al.) with the perfect degree of revulsion, outrage, and disdain. Author Chandrasekaran, former Baghdad bureau chief for the WASHINGTON POST, misses not a detail or nuance in this unintentional black comedy‚ nor does the highly professional Porter. D.J.B. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine [Published: JUN/ JUL 07]