Book notes

From The Prince of Marshes by Rory Stewart

• In Afghanistan or Sierra Leone, where there had been decades of civil war and no functioning state, a Coalition [like the CPA] could easily improve things. But Saddam's huge centralized bureaucracy had run almost every detail of society and the economy. Such a system was difficult to jeep, replicate, or replace. Iraqis believed that the Coalition and Western technology could create immediate improvement in their lives. They couldn't.
  

• I had never believed that mankind, unless overawed by a strong government, would fall inevitably into violent chaos. Societies were orderly. . .But Maysan made me reconsider.