Dark Victory: America's Second War Against Iraq [Hardcover]

Jeffrey Record (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2004

A prominent national security analyst provides a critical examination of the origins, objectives, conduct, and consequences of the U.S. war against Iraq in this major new study. Focusing on the intersection of world politics, U.S. foreign policy, and the invasion and occupation of Iraq, Jeffrey Record presents a full-scale policy analysis of the war and its aftermath. As he looks at the political and strategic legacies of the 1991 Gulf War, the impact of 9/11 and neo-conservative ideology on the George W. Bush White House, and the formulation of the Bush Doctrine on the use of force, he assesses rather than describes, judges rather than recites facts. He decries the Bush administration's threat conflation of Saddam Hussein's Iraq and Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda, and calls U.S. plans inadequate to meet postwar challenges in Iraq.

With the support of convincing evidence, the author concludes that America's war against Iraq was both unnecessary and damaging to long-term U.S. security interests. He argues that there was no threatening Saddam-Osama connection and that even if Iraq had the weapons of mass destruction that the Bush administration believed necessitated war, it could have been readily deterred from using them, just as it had been in 1991. Record faults the administration for preventive, unilateralist policies that alienated friends and allies, weakened international institutions important to the United States, and saddled America with costly, open-ended occupation of an Arab heartland. He contends that far from being a major victory against terrorism, the war provided Islamic jihadists an expanded recruiting base and a new front of operations against Americans. Such a solid, thought-provoking study merits attention. 256 pages. Hardcover. 6 x 9 inches.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...considerable food for thought, along with expert analysis of America's misadventure in Iraq." -- Indianapolis Star, June 19, 2004

"What makes Record's analysis significant is his exploration of the linkage between politics, strategy, and operations." -- Journal of Military History, October 2004

About the Author

Jeffrey Record is a former professional staff member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and the author of six books, including Making War, Thinking History: Munich, Vietnam, and Presidential Uses of Force from Korea to Kosovo and The Wrong War: Why We Lost in Vietnam.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 203 pages
• Publisher: Naval Inst Pr (April 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591147115
• ISBN-13: 978-1591147114
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,402,777 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars how can we ever win a "war on terrorism"?, May 1, 2004

By 

R. Hutchinson "autonomeus" (a world ruled by fossil fuels and fossil minds) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dark Victory: America's Second War Against Iraq (Hardcover)

One of the most significant things about this book is its publisher, the U.S. Naval Institute Press -- apparently questioning the intelligence of particular military doctrines or wars is not anti-military or anti-patriotic.

Record has been a military analyst for many years, and the current analysis is a scathing critique of both the Bush Administration's military doctrine and the war on Iraq that flowed from that doctrine. Record forcefully and persuasively argues that the "Bush Doctrine" is totally open-ended and vague -- if the U.S. is really committed to a "war on terrorism" with no limits, then we are in big trouble. Record's position is that the U.S. should have "bounded" its objective and focused on Al-Qaeda. Launching the invasion and occupation of Iraq, which had no connection to either 9/11 or Al-Qaeda, has had several negative effects for U.S. national security, including: 1) it has stretched U.S. forces thin and diminished the forces available to fight Al-Qaeda or other serious threats (and Iraq posed no serious threat to the U.S. as the regime was contained), 2) it has outraged millions, leading to an increase in recruits to "Al-Qaeda-ism," 3) it has created chaos in Iraq and a prime area of operation for "Al-Qaeda-ism", and 4) it has damaged U.S. alliances that are critical to the long-term success of the appropriately limited "war on terrorism," in other words the police/military effort against "Al-Qaeda-ism."

Citizens of this country need to stop thinking in partisan terms and begin to think critically about U.S. strategy on its merits. DARK VICTORY is not part of a "liberal, Bush-bashing agenda." It does not include ad hominem attacks on individuals, but rather focuses on the dangerous consequences of current U.S. strategy. You don't have to agree with me that Bush has committed impeachable offenses in lying about the evidence and reasons for war (no WMD!) and leading us into an unnecessary war to see the need to change course. We owe it to the brave men and women sacrificing their lives for us right now to make sure their efforts are not in vain.

You can find the study that led to this book, called "Bounding the Global War on Terrorism," on the website of the U.S. Army War College.

11 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stinging indictment, June 17, 2004

By 

The "703raidernation" (Annandale, VA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dark Victory: America's Second War Against Iraq (Hardcover)

With sound research and reasoning, Dr. Record shreds the Bush administration's strategy and tactics with respect to the Iraq war and the "war on terrorism". I particularly was impressed with his use of the quotes of those involved with Desert Storm, as to why the U.S. led coalition didn't invade Baghdad in '91; the logic that Cheney, Powell, Wolfowitz, Rice, Scowcroft, Schwartzkopf, and Bush the Elder used then was every bit as correct now as then. The limitations of the "Bush Doctrine", and its profound shortcomings are also fully examined, as is the now-fully discredited notion that Saddam and Osama were bedfellows, and the peril that this linkage causes to U.S. foreign policy.
This is no shrill screech. This is an articulate, well presented, and hard to argue with indictment of a dangerous turn in the history of our nation and the world. It deserves to be read-- in fact, it needs to be read.

7 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Dark Victory: America's Second War Against Iraq, March 8, 2006

By 

Michael Rubin "Middle East Quarterly" (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dark Victory: America's Second War Against Iraq (Hardcover)

In 1993, Record, a former Senate Armed Services Committee staff member, authored Hollow Victory: A Contrary View of the Gulf War[1] in which he took President George H.W. Bush to task for not ousting Saddam Hussein. In the present book, Record takes George W. Bush to task for having corrected his father's mistake.

The new book, while well written, is reduced by the author's permeating antipathy for so-called neoconservatives, alleging without proof that a sympathy for Israel's Likud Party colors their view of the world. While it is true that neoconservatives tend to be staunch supporters of Israel, every president since Harry Truman has defended Israel's right to exist and to defend itself. Nor is there anything new about U.S. support for democracy or opposition to terror. The only recent development is a willingness of the U.S. government to reach out to new partners, even if this means working without traditional allies. Record further blames neoconservatives for "the president's controversial use-of-force doctrine," curiously overlooking the impact of 9/11 on Bush's thinking.

Record holds neoconservatives responsible for pursuing policies that cause many adversaries to dislike the United States. He laments "the Bush administration's foreign policy fails to grasp the fact that others do not see us as we see ourselves-that is, as a benign and historically exceptional force." But the Bush administration does grasp this; it just believes that being respected is more important than being liked. The costs of winning Syrian, North Korean, or Chinese favor for U.S. policy would be too high if it meant abandonment of democracies such as Israel, South Korea, and Taiwan. Conversely, Libyan strongman Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi may not like the United States, but it was his respect for the Bush administration's willingness to back force with military action that led to his decision to abandon his nuclear ambitions.

Record's style is confident and authoritative with plenty of facts cited and examples given. A close read, though, shows that Record ignores facts that undermine his arguments. For example, he trumpets a 1999 UNICEF report that relied on Iraqi government statistics to conclude that sanctions on Iraq killed 500,000 Iraqi children; he ignores a joint Food and Agriculture Organization and World Health Organization study the following year that found that half the Iraqi population was overweight, and that hypertension and diabetes-not diseases of the hungry-were among the leading causes of Iraqi mortality.[2] Other facts he simply gets wrong. How could the Defense Department have airlifted Ahmad Chalabi into Iraq during military operations when Chalabi had returned to Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq months before the war began?

Dark Victory has many other weaknesses. Record engages in one-man's-terrorist-is-another's-patriot moral relativism. He conflates the Afghan mujahideen with Al-Qaeda, an anachronism that ignores a decade-long fight between Al-Qaeda pan-Islamists and Afghan nationalists such as Ahmad Shah Masud. While determined to debunk any analogy between postwar Japan and Iraq, Record ignores the South Korea example, frequently cited by Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz. Notably absent from a book about Iraq is any consideration of what Iraqis think; Record writes as if Iraqis do not exist.

A book should be more than a glorified op-ed. Unfortunately, Dark Victory is not.

Middle East Quarterly, Spring 2005