Customer Reviews

Confronting Iraq: U.S. Policy and the Use of Force Since the Gulf War

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I thought this book had a great history of the events from the end of the first Gulf War to start of 2001. The author's detail out each major event and UN resolution and what the Iraq and US did or did not do as a result. It was interesting that many times, basically every time, there was a new resolution Iraq ended up first playing games and then backing down. It almost seamed to be the behavior of a spoiled brat. It was also very interesting where the authors can show that Iraq got close to having the UN stop the sanctions, but each time Saddam would do something dumb and the world would demand that the sanctions be put back in place. What also comes through is the very difficult if almost impossible position the UN is in trying to enforce resolutions when the only power they have is rented / given to them by other countries. What this has created is a situation that only resolutions heavily supported by the US get the US military backing thus have the teeth to be effective.

The one downside of the book was the chapter long discussion on what coercion meant the definition and how the word should correctly be used. Nice info for a high school reader but it just slowed the book down for the rest of us. Overall I liked the book, it was a bit dry and could have been a bit more detailed, but it was a nice review of the past ten years. The real value is putting some facts behind what has been so talked about over the past year and what was the Iraqi position as it related to the UN resolutions. If you have been interested in this situation over the past year then you will probably enjoy this book.