Customer Reviews

World War IV: The Long Struggle Against Islamofascism (Vintage)

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

The thesis of this book is that the United States and the free world are now engaged in a fourth world- war, this one against radical Islam. The 'third world war' ended with the fall of the Soviet Union, and now according to Podhoretz the West faces another long- term struggle which will be decided not in a year or two but in the decades ahead. The point - man of this war at present is President Bush who Podhoretz sees as continually defamed and slandered by anti- American elements in the far - too- liberal for his taste Western media.
While I am fundamentally in sympathy with his approach and believe that he rightfully sees the insidious intentions of a radical revolutionary fundamentalist Islam , I have reservations about his approach. One reason for this is that when we think of War we tend to think of great military forces in direct collision. True, the United States and the Soviet Union did not come to the ultimate face off, as the Allies did against the Axis but there were two massive military and political empires in direct contention.
Here there is , as Podhoretz is well aware of, an assymetrical situation. Therefore he sees it as a new kind of war, a new kind of struggle which is especially demanding in the propaganda and media spheres. As I understand it he reads the intentions of Radical Islam rightly. Whether it be the Sunni Salafi Wahhabite strains or the Shiite Messianic strains there is an ideology whose ultimate goal is putting all of Mankind under the flag of Islam. The rise in this regard of a radical Iran on the verge of nuclear weapons is at this moment a key and most threatening development in the overall struggle.
In regard to Iran Podhoretz is most forthright and persuasive. He outlines the dangers of a nuclear Iran, and he rightly characterizes the regime as an Islamofascist one. He understands Gulf Oil, America's allies in the Middle East would all be put in great jeopardy by a nuclear Iran. And he strongly advocates as major step in the war the preempting of the Iranian nuclear threat.
Iran also plays a part in another aspect of the Islamic threat, the element of Muslim penetration into Europe. There is by this time a whole literature suggesting that in a few decades post- Christian Europe my well be Islamic.
But there are great weaknesses in the world of Islam, including the major failure to within their own societies confront the modern world and properly adapt to it. The Islamic world is by and large a backward world not simply in its political structure but in its command of the knowledge, and technique of modernity.
So my own understanding is that in the civilizational confrontations of the future it is not really poised for mastery and conquest. Its forces are too scattered, divided, and weak. Consider the chaos in Iraq with not simply Sunnite- Shiite conflicts but with internal Shiite conflicts. To my mind the danger of radical Islam and Islam's anti- American stand is in its power to weaken the U.S. isolate it from its allies, and generally serve as auxillary to the forces which present a greater real threat in the future, a renascent Russia, and far more importantly ,an ambitious rapidly developing China.
On the whole I believe Podhoretz rightly points to an ongoing, and increasing danger presented to the U.S. and the West by radical Islam. I believe he is right in seeing that this danger will not go away soon. And that the U.S. struggle will be a long term and global one. The historian Michael Oren in surveying two - hundred years of American involvement in the Middle East showed many of the U.S. involvement in that part of the world has been deeper and longer than we knew. It may be that the struggle of the kind Podhoretz rightly indicates the U.S. to be in will be going on in another one hundred years from now.
On the whole this is an informative and rich work which anyone who takes true interest in the present world- situation would do well to read.

Outstanding analysis of the five years post 911. Podoretz places The War on Terror (or what he calls WW IV) in the context of the last sixty years of U.S. foreign policy. Drawing valid parallels between the response of the media, academia, and political leaders to WW 2, and the Cold War (or what he calls WWIII) Podhoretz has a clear vision of the dangers of the world today. He compares Bush favorably to Truman and asserts that history will prove the President to be a great president in the foreign policy arena. However, what Podhoretz fails to do is to point out explicitly the dangers of pulling out of Iraq before achieving success. Should be required reading.

Must reading for liberals and conservatives alike. In fact, every voter should be given a copy for mandatory reading. This was a concise and insightful review of the history of US foreign policy, from the post-WW II "Truman Doctrine," which formulated the plan to fight WW III, known as the Cold War, to the Bush Doctrine, designed as a road map to fight Islamofacism in WW IV.

Hopefully, our Presidential candidates are reading similar books to avoid the grave and costly mistakes of their predecessors as detailed in this interesting, and highly readable foreign affairs book.

Some may bristle at the defense of Bush's foreign policy initiative, including his doctrine of preemptive defense. That aside, it provides a cogent and readable explanation for its underpinnings rather than the puerile name-calling that the left is prone to engage in.

The Bush Doctrine on our struggle against Islamofascism is basically correct but by not naming it "World War IV" the doctrine lost clarity and focus and that has had a negative effect on the conduct of the war.
The author takes on all critics from the left the right and the media with logic and facts. He is fair in blaming Presidents from both parties for decisions that made 9/11 possible.

I have noticed something about Publisher's Weekly, some others may have noticed as well. They just don't like books written by conservatives and apparently the door swings the other way.

It is true that Mr. Podhoretz is an unashamed Bush lover, he certainly has enough people that think otherwise so balance is good. Although I haven't liked all things about our President, I do generally like him and think he is an honorable man.

The writer has a wonderful perspective of going from a liberal to a Neoconservative. Much like Clarence Thomas' book he reveals a coming to self discovery which I find fascinating. If we are open and take in a lot of varied sources of information, weigh the validity we all come to different conclusions, hopefully we are open minded enough to accept the results of the journey.

I do believe his historic perspective is correct and his analogies valid to enforce his argument. I also believe the long range view of this struggle taking more than a 100 years might be optimistic. Looking at places in the world that have grudges that have existed between tribes and countries for a 1000 years or more. If born into hate, it is likely you will die with hate, sad but few break out of that and it has sustained through 1000s of years and many cultures.

If your the kind of person that wants to throw a shoe at the television when President Bush gives a speech, then I wouldn't buy this book. However is you have a little bit of an open mind and willing to listen to some good although pointed arguments to learn a few things about our recent history and our world, you might want to read this book.

No one wants to say the word. From the President (he only occasionally uses the term), to our Congress, to the media; they use the words "War on Terror", along with other creative titles. I believe Norman Podhoretz's newest book title appropriately names it, World War IV, The Long Struggle Against Islamofascism. The key word being Islamofascism.

World War IV does a very good job of describing our current struggle and the importance that we as a nation win in the battle against Islamofascism. Below is a description of two to the key chapters in World War IV.

Podhoretz's book does an excellent job of laying out the United States' foreign policy since WWII, describing the Truman Doctrine and the process of fighting WWIII, which was often referred to as the Cold War to Bush's current doctrine of how to fight WWIV. Chapter two "How We Emboldened the Terrorists" is an excellent chapter showing how President Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan (yes, even Reagan), H. W. Bush and Clinton appeased and/or ignored terrorist attacks on U.S. citizens and interests and how this indeed did embolden our enemy.

I believe chapter eleven, The Radicalization of the Democrats, is worth the price of the book alone. Podhoretz succinctly refutes the argument of "Bush lied and people died". After reading this chapter you will see why Podhoretz states "If, given all this, George W. Bush had failed to take action against Iraq, he would have been guilty of an egregious dereliction of his responsibility to `preserve, protect, and defend' this country `against all enemies, foreign and domestic' and for that he would truly have deserved to be impeached". (pg. 161). Two be fair, Podhoretz also addresses the right in chapter twelve, Defeatism on the Right.

Our current politicians and citizenry would benefit from reading this book.

The author's thesis is well thought out. I also found the book to be a clear reminder that "World War IV", as he refers to it, began long before Sept 11, 2001. Clear thinking adults, not blinded by partisan rhetoric will most likely come away with a different view, or at minimum a different perspective of the Bush Doctrine as it relates to the war on terror.

I went in thinking this book was going to be very interesting and have the typical hystorical facts of violence in result of Islam. Well, I was wrong, it is a very historical book, and includes an incredible amount of information. You'll get the typical people who will write bad reviews simply because Mr.Podhoretz describes himself as a NeoCon, but dont be fooled. This book is very well written and mostly in context for intelligent people. Its a must read.

This is a clear and concise defense of the post-911 Bush Doctrine of military preemption/democratization in response to the Jihadi threat. That doctrine replaced the cold war (WWIII) strategy of containment/deterrence and the pre-911 (Clinton) strategy of police action/status quo. After 911, it seems obvious that something different was needed in response to the threat from millions of suicidal religious zealots (even if only 5% of Muslims are included, that's still 65 million people) with access to vast sums of money, modern technology and eventually biological/nuclear weapons. Nuclear Pakistan and wannabe Iran are the most disturbing examples.

Podhoretz answers both liberal (internationalists) and conservative (realists) critics of the Bush Doctrine and does so persuasively. He is most worried about the politically correct, multicultural, anti-American left wing obstructionism and defeatism that opposes virtually all steps Bush has taken to protect us (Patriot Act, Gitmo, aggressive interrogation, electronic and financial surveillance, etc.). Unfortunately, those forces are formidable (particularly after the the somnolent public forgot about 911) and will continue to resist those measures and otherwise undermine Bush's efforts to make us safer (security leaks, media bias, Democrat defeatism and attempts to micromanage the military). Podhortz fears only another 911 attack (or worse) will convince the public we are facing a vital threat.

Wake up, America.

World War IV was not quite what I expected, and the title certain belies the contents of the book, although it performs several necessary functions despite its brevity. The American public is fed a steady drumbeat of pessimism and oftentimes outright hostility towards anything that George W. Bush has done or will do. Podhoretz places what GWB had called the `Global War on Terrorism' into the lager historical context of `World War IV,' which was preceded by World War III (the cold war). Objections to the current war on Iraq, and to a lesser extent Afghanistan, are deconstructed into component strains of American isolationism extending back to Woodrow Wilson's presidency, outright anti-Americanism continuous with 1960's radical movements, metastasizing liberalism bordering on outright socialism, Democrat party hypocrisy and the myriad schools of foreign policy with Cold War genealogy. Podhoretz also demystifies the currently misused term `neoconservative,' exposes the blatant and shameful politicization of national security by the Democrats and succinctly defines the `Bush Doctrine.' I would highly recommend this book to both liberals and conservatives, although the former group is in desperate need of historical context in their often a-historical arguments.