Green Zone is out this week, an Iraq war action-thriller starring Matt Damon, directed by Paul Greengrass, and carrying the curious credit of being based on the book Imperial Life in the Emerald City by Rajiv Chandrasekaran. Chandrasekaran is a journalist and editor at The Washington Post. His book is a lacerating report from inside America's seat of power in Iraq, during the early days of the occupation, just as insurgency was beginning to showcase the realities of our prolonged commitment to the country.

Of all the books on Iraq that I've read, each one focused on the politics, the lies, and the soldiers, Imperial Life takes a very unique look from the bureaucratic center of the occupation. A blurb on the cover says, "Often reads like something out of Catch-22 or from M*A*S*H," and I couldn't have put it better than that. The realities and minutiae of the day-to-day occupation are baffling to the outside observer. Anyone with a lick of practical sense can see the inherent problems, the swagger and ignorance on stark display for the "liberated" to see. That is, if they could see through tanks and blast walls. As an occupying force, commandeering the palace of a former dictator and then fortifying it into a sort American dreamland could possibly be the worst idea you've ever heard.

How they got an action movie out of this confuses me, but my guess is that the book's tone, not facts, are what inspired the filmmakers. All in all, Imperial Life in the Emerald City might be one of the few books on Iraq that stays relevant beyond the context. As a portrait of an occupying force it is searing and fearless and I'd recommend it to anyone who likes to throw books across the room in frustration.