The Politics of Intelligence and American Wars with Iraq (The Middle East in Focus) [Hardcover]

Ofira Seliktar (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 19, 2008 | ISBN-10: 0230604536 | ISBN-13: 978-0230604537

Coming at the heels of September 11, Operation Iraqi Freedom has focused the limelight on the way in which the United States predicts and manages political change.  The failure to find WMD and more important, the continued violence in Iraq instead of the hoped for democracy, has engender an acrimonious debate on the motives of the Bush administration and its uses or misuses of intelligence.   The question of who got what right or wrong has been fought out along ideological, and partisan lines, with supporters   claiming that, given what was known about Saddam Hussein, the decision to change his regime was justified and detractors arguing that a group of largely Jewish neoconservatives, acting on behalf of Israel, manipulated intelligence in order to trick the United States into an unnecessary and costly war.  The book provides a systematic and objective analysis of the problems that  faced American intelligence in deciphering the behavior of the  highly secretive and confusing Iraq regime and its enigmatic leader. 

 

 

Editorial Reviews

Review

"While much writing about intelligence and the Iraq war is long on sweeping allegation and conspiracy theories, and short on either evidence or substance, Seliktar. . .breaks the mold with a serious academic study. . .[she] is careful and dispassionate in her treatment of the Iraq war and its aftermath. . .Politics of Intelligence is a masterful account."--Michael Rubin, Middle East Quarterly

About the Author

Ofira Seliktar is a Professor of Political Science at Gratz College and Adjunct Professor at Temple University. She specializes in the study of intelligence failures, among her previous books are Failing the Crystal Ball Test: The Carter Administration and the Fundamentalist Revolution in Iran and Politics, Paradigm, and Intelligence Failures: Why So Few Predicted the Collapse of the Soviet Union. Professor Seliktar is currently working on a new book,  Paradigms, Intelligence and Reality: Could the Failure of the Oslo Peace Process Have Been Predicted?

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan (February 19, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0230604536
• ISBN-13: 978-0230604537
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,087,896 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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