A Time of Our Choosing: America's War in Iraq

by Todd S. Purdum, The Staff of the New York Times

Overview

"An indispensable guide to understanding the causes, conduct and consequences of the war in Iraq . . . A Time of Our Choosing can be read with profit by those on all sides of the debate."

-The New York Times Book Review

A Time of Our Choosing is the authoritative and dramatic account of the war in Iraq, America's most controversial war since Vietnam, drawing on the unparalleled resources and reportage of The New York Times. Todd S. Purdum, one of the paper's most gifted writers, deftly rolls out the whole canvas before our eyes, weaving together a single, gripping tale. Purdum traces the story of the war from the first rumblings after 9/11 to the diplomatic tussles at the United Nations, to the battles themselves and the violence that lasted well beyond the cessation of formal hostilities. And in a new afterword he recounts the high drama of the capture of Saddam Hussein and pursues the persistent questions regarding weapons of mass destruction, flawed intelligence, and preemptive war. President George W. Bush has vowed that the United States would attack its enemies at "a time of our choosing," and Purdum shows in vivid terms what this choice has meant for our now transformed world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781466866102
Publisher:	Times Books
Publication date:	08/06/2024
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Todd S. Purdum is a correspondent in the Washington bureau of The New York Times. He has worked for the Times for more than twenty years, and is a former diplomatic correspondent, White House correspondent, and Los Angeles bureau chief. A graduate of Princeton University, he lives with his family in Washington, D.C.

Read an Excerpt

From A Time of Our Choosing:

It was 4 a.m. when the two men arrived in the empty darkness of downtown. They carried a letter from the president, bearing his signature and authorizing a large transaction. They gave no reason. They did not have to. No questions were asked. Soon enough, Qusay Saddam Hussein, the president’s second son, and Abid Hamid Mahmoud al-Tikriti, Saddam’s personal assistant, were overseeing the loading of 236 boxes into three tractor-trailers outside Iraq’s Central Bank. A team of workers took two hours to finish the job. Bank employees were meticulous, good bureaucrats to the end. They kept records of every batch of bills, then placed a packing slip enumerating the contents into each box before it was sealed.

Over the years, Saddam and his family would sometimes demand cash from Iraqi banks. “Small amounts, maybe $5 million,” one official said. This withdrawal was something else again. The total haul: almost $1 billion. There was $900 million in $100 bills and perhaps $100 million worth of euros, about a quarter of the country’s hard-currency reserves, enough to rank as one of the largest bank robberies in history. Then again, Saddam’s power was so absolute that this seizure might have broken no laws. What was the money for? Where was it going? No one may ever know. But on that early spring morning, Saddam Hussein, president for life of the Republic of Iraq, Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council, Central Leader of the Ba’ath Party, and Great Uncle to the fearful populace he had ruled for almost a quarter century surely knew this: far away in Washington, the president of the United States had given him and his sons just forty-eight hours to surrender power and leave their country—or face war.

Editorial Reviews

"A useful and comprehensive narrative of the Iraq saga during the last year . . . The great strength of this book is Mr. Purdum's astute ability to pull together the varied reporting for The Times into a single whole . . . Mr. Purdum has done a superb job." -The New York Times

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