宫殿里的囚犯。萨达姆-侯赛因，他的美国卫兵，以及历史上未被提及的事情

宫殿里的囚犯。萨达姆-侯赛因，他的美国卫兵，以及历史上未被提及的事情

威尔-巴登韦伯

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在《冷血》和《刽子手之歌》的萦绕传统中，这本关于萨达姆-侯赛因的作品具有非凡的洞察力和令人惊讶的亲密关系，它邀请我们在2006年夏天与12名年轻的美国士兵一起旅行。他们被训练成在战斗中积极对抗敌人，但在被部署到伊拉克后不久，他们了解到命运给他们分配了一个不同的角色。他们的任务是在该国臭名昭著的领导人被处决前的几个月里保护他。

他们与被称为 "岩石 "的前宫殿中的 "高价值被拘留者 "生活在一起，并照顾他，定期运送他去参加喧闹的审判，许多人开始质疑他们的一些最基本的假设--关于司法程序、萨达姆的性格和现代战争的道德性。尽管这些年轻士兵与这位曾经令人恐惧的独裁者越来越亲密的对话从未导致他们怀疑他对不可描述的罪行的责任，但这些人确实发现他的心理有令人惊讶的新层次，与媒体对他的描述相悖。

根据许多美国警卫、政府官员、审讯者、学者、间谍、律师、家庭成员和受害者提供的第一手资料，《宫中囚徒》展示了两个萨达姆共存于一个人身上：一个是以酷刑和谋杀为工具的挑衅性暴君，另一个是精明但沉思的囚徒，在面对迫近的死亡时表现出惊人的感情、尊严和勇气。

在这个艺术化的叙述中，萨达姆这个 "没有良心的人 "让他周围的许多人审视自己的良心。宫中囚徒》奇妙地发人深省，揭示了在无情的敌人身上发现一个人，然后把他送上绞刑架是什么感觉。

The Prisoner in His Palace: Saddam Hussein, His American Guards, and What History Leaves Unsaid

Will Bardenwerper

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In the haunting tradition of In Cold Blood and The Executioner’s Song, this remarkably insightful and surprisingly intimate portrait of Saddam Hussein lifts away the top layer of a dictator’s evil and finds complexity beneath as it invites us to take a journey with twelve young American soldiers in the summer of 2006. Trained to aggressively confront the enemy in combat, the men learn, shortly after being deployed to Iraq, that fate has assigned them a different role. It becomes their job to guard the country’s notorious leader in the months leading to his execution.

Living alongside, and caring for, their “high value detainee” in a former palace dubbed The Rock and regularly transporting him to his raucous trial, many of the men begin questioning some of their most basic assumptions—about the judicial process, Saddam’s character, and the morality of modern war. Although the young soldiers’ increasingly intimate conversations with the once-feared dictator never lead them to doubt his responsibility for unspeakable crimes, the men do discover surprising new layers to his psyche that run counter to the media’s portrayal of him.

Woven from first-hand accounts provided by many of the American guards, government officials, interrogators, scholars, spies, lawyers, family members, and victims, The Prisoner in His Palace shows two Saddams coexisting in one person: the defiant tyrant who uses torture and murder as tools, and a shrewd but contemplative prisoner who exhibits surprising affection, dignity, and courage in the face of looming death.

In this artfully constructed narrative, Saddam, the “man without a conscience,” gets many of those around him to examine theirs. Wonderfully thought-provoking, The Prisoner in His Palace reveals what it is like to discover in one’s ruthless enemy a man, and then deliver him to the gallows.