Iraq, Intelligence Failures, and Kelly Clarkson

I recently spent some time chatting with Spencer Ackerman, of the Washington Independent and the American Prospect, about Still Broken, and it ended up being easily the most fun I've had talking about my new book. I've completely lifted their headline for this post, since it's perfect, and I can't imagine you need any more motivation to head over and check it out.

Still, if you need an excerpt to entice you, head below the fold -- it even explains the Joe Klein blurb everybody keeps asking about in the comments . . .

SA: In the book, you admirably confess to your bad taste in music. ("My work was fueled by steady doses of Evanescence, Linkin Park, Sarah McLachlan[!], Metallica, the Dixie Chicks, and the like.") First, kudos for surviving the savage beatings you must have endured from your colleagues. But you also disclose that you wrote an e-mail to friends and family that "took the format of matching Kelly Clarkson lyrics to my observations" about Iraq.

Somehow, though, those lyrics didn't make it into the book. Fess up: What does Kelly Clarkson tell us about Iraq?

AR: I'm glad you brought this up, because it allows me to address two very important issues. First and foremost, Kelly Clarkson has plenty to tell us about an infinite number of topics, from the mundane to the critical. Can't say enough about the talent there, and she helped keep me sane in Baghdad. I'm obviously not afraid to acknowledge my affection for pop music in all its glory, which brings me to the second point, about the advance praise on the back cover from Joe Klein, who jokes about my bad taste in the midst of a very kind endorsement of the book, saying, "And while Rossmiller demonstrates, repeatedly, that his taste in music really needs an upgrade, he also proves to be an engaging, skillful, and funny writer." Joe takes a lot of flack on the internets, but for the (surprisingly many) people who have asked about that blurb, it is indeed a reference to the text, obviously, and all in good fun—and it demonstrated he had actually read the whole thing, which was a nice compliment in itself.

To answer your question more specifically, though, I'm very pleased to present here, exclusively to TAP Online, a few brief excerpts of the original, unedited version of that chapter!

To see the lyrics and stories, go read!