Baghdad Country Club (Audible Audio Edition) Joshuah Bearman The Atavist Books
Download As PDF : Baghdad Country Club (Audible Audio Edition) Joshuah Bearman The Atavist Books
Welcome to a place where even beer runs are a matter of life and death. As the Iraq War draws to an official close, Joshuah Bearman tells the funny and poignant tale of the real-life Baghdad Country Club, a bar in the Green Zone during the conflict's bloodiest years. Against all odds, its proprietors struggle to keep their raucous watering hole safe and well-stocked as the insurgency rages outside.
Baghdad Country Club (Audible Audio Edition) Joshuah Bearman The Atavist Books
As Hawkeye Pierce wrote home from Korea "the fighting goes on, the hatred, the violence, the senseless brutality, men behaving like animals - and then there's the war."The grunts from M*A*S*H would have felt right at home hanging out in the Baghdad Country Club, a small rump of a bar that flourished briefly in the heart of the Iraqi Capital's Green Zone, a refuge inside a walled refuge during the Iraq conflict.
Joshuah Bearman tells the story of the BCC, an alcohol and testosterone-fuelled haven where songs by the band "Men at Work" were pulled from the jukebox after a pack of blotto Aussies went nuts hearing "Down Under" blasting over the PA.
It's also the story of James (first name only for security reasons), the former British Army paratrooper now a war zone contractor, who was the counter-culture visionary who opened the club in the middle of an insurgency at the peak of the war where liquor is prohibited by Iraqi General order No. 1. Just try to imagine the struggles involved in opening in bombed-out Baghdad a reliable supply line for food and alcohol.
Describing James is to talk about what it means to be an entrepreneur. He's the type of guy whose inclination "was to figure out what no one else was doing and make that your game." James had his own sidekick, Ajax, a former Iraqi translator, a chain smoking wiry little fixer who "knew lots of guys" and was trusted by almost everyone.
The Baghdad Country Club opened its doors in August 2006. A pattern of harassment by military and civilian authorities began in 2007. Finally, Green Zone police along with the FBI descended and raided the establishment.
The raid was something even Ajax couldn't fix. Some people connected with the place were given 24 hours to leave the country. We aren't told how long the BCC had remained in business. But you sense it flourished briefly and flared out quickly.
James says that inside the BCC within the Green Zone in the heart of Baghdad there was always a siege mentality. People came together to relax and take comfort. For a brief few months, it was the only place where people could shut out the world.
The BCC's story is a matter-of-fact account considering the time and place. It presents a view of war from a new angle. The story succeeds, for me anyway, by portraying what everyday life was like for short while in a fortified enclave in a war zone.
[3.5 stars]
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Baghdad Country Club (Audible Audio Edition) Joshuah Bearman The Atavist Books Reviews
In Baghdad Country Club (BCC) you hear the story of how one man through hard work and a little chance carved out a niche in the Green Zone during Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) 2006-2008. This is a neat story about an adventurous man who refused to "retire" to a desk and went back to OIF after his tour with the British Army. With a little luck and a whole lot of networking he is able to create one of those iconic places and adventures that will stand out in history.
They story is told in first person by the author and was written well, however I wish the story would have been expanded on a little more. The characters could have been expanded upon a little more as well giving the story a little more "meat".
Overall a good read, finished it off in just a couple sittings.
Just goes to show how a couple of men saw an opening for a new business venture and ran with it and made a success of it. It no doubt was not as easy as it seemed in the book and things in Baghdad would have been pretty hairy anyway. A short read, but interesting.
The BCC was a chapter from after I was over there but it's interesting to read about the watering hole in the "safe zone." It's a short book but it looks at one little part of a bigger conflict. Rocket attacks were less frequent but Mookie's shi'ites were still causing trouble. Route Irish was still a dangerous drive and there seemed to be little rhyme or reason to how or why things got done. This was a good introduction for me to the use of .
This was interesting but didn't go into the level of detail about the Iraq situation I was expecting. While my expectations may have been unrealistic, I bought the item looking for more insight than was available. Since there's still room to write here I will comment that I have not completed reading "Killing Castro" or Worst Case scenario and I have already reviewed "Predator Priest" "Breaking News", "The Consultant" and "The Hit".
It stuck me that the author really enjoyed writing this book and did not care if it was going to be widely read or not, which is what I liked about this book. I also liked that it was written almost like an editorial. The style and the content made it feel original and I quite enjoyed that. It also provided some insight to the life and times in Baghdad at the time, without going out of context. I am a fussy reader and I finished it. I wouldn't go around recommending it, but I didn't feel like it was a waste of time either.
We got into the Iraq war after a PR campaign about how we going to do good things for the people of Iraq. This story was about what really happened as we poured billions of dollars in to the effort to create a Green Zone. I can see why our "occupation" was not appreciated. I got to imagining what we would do if someone came into our country on the same pretenses and sent up a Green Zone and conducted business in the same way as we did in Baghdad. I think the book is a good argument for reductions in the appropriations made to the defense budget or from wherever private contractors are paid.
As the Iraq invasion settled and the US and Coalition forces settled for the transition to a smooth democracy, Bearman lays out this foaming frothy lie of the war and instead we se we see a military campaign and country with no plan and no way forward. As Americans and Iraqis are dying just outside the tall concrete walls of the Green Zone, the mixed groups of Coalition, US and others are inside the drinking to their hearts delight as the war rages outside. I watched this happen while serving in the Green Zone or more commonly known as the IZ or International Zone for those who were there. The motivation for partying and drinking was more of a goal for people within the IZ than for winning this war. Good job
As Hawkeye Pierce wrote home from Korea "the fighting goes on, the hatred, the violence, the senseless brutality, men behaving like animals - and then there's the war."
The grunts from M*A*S*H would have felt right at home hanging out in the Baghdad Country Club, a small rump of a bar that flourished briefly in the heart of the Iraqi Capital's Green Zone, a refuge inside a walled refuge during the Iraq conflict.
Joshuah Bearman tells the story of the BCC, an alcohol and testosterone-fuelled haven where songs by the band "Men at Work" were pulled from the jukebox after a pack of blotto Aussies went nuts hearing "Down Under" blasting over the PA.
It's also the story of James (first name only for security reasons), the former British Army paratrooper now a war zone contractor, who was the counter-culture visionary who opened the club in the middle of an insurgency at the peak of the war where liquor is prohibited by Iraqi General order No. 1. Just try to imagine the struggles involved in opening in bombed-out Baghdad a reliable supply line for food and alcohol.
Describing James is to talk about what it means to be an entrepreneur. He's the type of guy whose inclination "was to figure out what no one else was doing and make that your game." James had his own sidekick, Ajax, a former Iraqi translator, a chain smoking wiry little fixer who "knew lots of guys" and was trusted by almost everyone.
The Baghdad Country Club opened its doors in August 2006. A pattern of harassment by military and civilian authorities began in 2007. Finally, Green Zone police along with the FBI descended and raided the establishment.
The raid was something even Ajax couldn't fix. Some people connected with the place were given 24 hours to leave the country. We aren't told how long the BCC had remained in business. But you sense it flourished briefly and flared out quickly.
James says that inside the BCC within the Green Zone in the heart of Baghdad there was always a siege mentality. People came together to relax and take comfort. For a brief few months, it was the only place where people could shut out the world.
The BCC's story is a matter-of-fact account considering the time and place. It presents a view of war from a new angle. The story succeeds, for me anyway, by portraying what everyday life was like for short while in a fortified enclave in a war zone.
[3.5 stars]
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