List Price: $30.00
Save: $15.00 (50%)

FREE Shipping on orders with at least $25 of books.

In Stock.

Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

Turn on 1-Click ordering for this browser

Want it Tuesday, April 12? Order within and choose Two-Day Shipping at checkout. Details

Ship to:

Select a shipping address:

Have one to sell? Sell on Amazon

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See this image

America's War for the Greater Middle East: A Military History Hardcover – Deckle Edge, April 5, 2016

by Andrew J. Bacevich (Author)

2 customer reviews

in Middle East History

See all 3 formats and editions Hide other formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$22.15

—

Hardcover, Deckle Edge

"Please retry"

$15.00

$18.08

Audible, Unabridged

"Please retry"

$0.00

Free with your Audible trial

Retired army colonel and New York Times bestselling author Andrew J. Bacevich provides a searing reassessment of U.S. military policy in the Middle East over the past four decades.

From the end of World War II until 1980, virtually no American soldiers were killed in action while serving in the Greater Middle East. Since 1990, virtually no American soldiers have been killed in action anywhere else. What caused this shift? Andrew J. Bacevich, one of the country’s most respected voices on foreign affairs, offers an incisive critical history of this ongoing military enterprise—now more than thirty years old and with no end in sight.

During the 1980s, Bacevich argues, a great transition occurred. As the Cold War wound down, the United States initiated a new conflict—a War for the Greater Middle East—that continues to the present day. The long twilight struggle with the Soviet Union had involved only occasional and sporadic fighting. But as this new war unfolded, hostilities became persistent. From the Balkans and East Africa to the Persian Gulf and Central Asia, U.S. forces embarked upon a seemingly endless series of campaigns across the Islamic world. Few achieved anything remotely like conclusive success. Instead, actions undertaken with expectations of promoting peace and stability produced just the opposite. As a consequence, phrases like “permanent war” and “open-ended war” have become part of everyday discourse.

Connecting the dots in a way no other historian has done before, Bacevich weaves a compelling narrative out of episodes as varied as the Beirut bombing of 1983, the Mogadishu firefight of 1993, the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and the rise of ISIS in the present decade. Understanding what America’s costly military exertions have wrought requires seeing these seemingly discrete events as parts of a single war. It also requires identifying the errors of judgment made by political leaders in both parties and by senior military officers who share responsibility for what has become a monumental march to folly. This Bacevich unflinchingly does.

A twenty-year army veteran who served in Vietnam, Andrew J. Bacevich brings the full weight of his expertise to this vitally important subject. America’s War for the Greater Middle East is a bracing after-action report from the front lines of history. It will fundamentally change the way we view America’s engagement in the world’s most volatile region.

Praise for America’s War for the Greater Middle East

“Bacevich is thought-provoking, profane and fearless. . . . [His] call for Americans to rethink their nation’s militarized approach to the Middle East is incisive, urgent and essential.”—The New York Times Book Review

“Bacevich’s magnum opus . . . a deft and rhythmic polemic aimed at America’s failures in the Middle East from the end of Jimmy Carter’s presidency to the present.”—Robert D. Kaplan, The Wall Street Journal

“[A] monumental new work . . . One of the grim and eerie wonders of his book is the way in which just about every wrongheaded thing Washington did in that region in the fourteen-plus years since 9/11 had its surprising precursor in the two decades of American war there before the World Trade Center towers came down.”—The Huffington Post

“An unparalleled historical tour de force certain to affect the formation of future U.S. foreign policy.”—Lieutenant General Paul K. Van Riper, U.S. Marine Corps (Ret.)

America's War for the Greater Middle East: A Military History [Deckle Edge]

$15.00 FREE Shipping on orders with at least $25 of books. In Stock. Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

Frequently Bought Together

Total price: $38.21

Buy the selected items together

This item:America's War for the Greater Middle East: A Military History by Andrew J. Bacevich Hardcover $15.00
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
FREE Shipping on orders over $25. Details
The New American Militarism: How Americans Are Seduced by War by Andrew J. Bacevich Paperback $11.15
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
FREE Shipping on orders over $25. Details
Washington Rules: America's Path to Permanent War (American Empire Project) by Andrew J. Bacevich Paperback $12.06
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
FREE Shipping on orders over $25. Details

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading.

Andrew J. Bacevich

111

Paperback
$11.15
Andrew J. Bacevich

124

Paperback
$12.06
Thomas Frank

31

in Political Parties
Hardcover
$18.39
Andrew J. Bacevich

253

Paperback
$12.88
Michael Mandelbaum

3

in Political History
Hardcover
$28.45
Andrew J. Bacevich

162

Paperback
$11.92

NO_CONTENT_IN_FEATURE

Product Details

Hardcover: 480 pages
Publisher: Random House (April 5, 2016)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0553393936
ISBN-13: 978-0553393934
Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 1.3 x 9.6 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #238 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1 in Books > History > Middle East
- #1 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Politics & Government > International & World Politics > Middle Eastern
- #4 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Politics & Government > Public Affairs & Policy

Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars

5 star		100%
4 star		0%
3 star		0%
2 star		0%
1 star		0%

See both customer reviews

Share your thoughts with other customers

Write a customer review

Top Customer Reviews

Excellent Summary of How We Got Into This Mess -

By Loyd Eskildson HALL OF FAME on April 5, 2016

Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase

Author Bacevich opens by contending that our military involvement in the greater Middle East began with the failure to rescue the American hostages in our Tehran embassy. Mechanical breakdowns, very limited visibility due to stirred up dust, and a chopper accidently hitting a stationary C-130 resulted in the mission being canceled and the deaths of 8 Americans. While President Carter quickly took responsibility, Bacevich points out that the myriad errors in design and execution were attributable to the military professionals involved.

Bacevich also points out that Carter's predecessors going back to WWII had done him no favors with their forging ill-advised relationships and foolhardy commitments. Nonetheless, Carter had launched America's War for the Greater Middle East, compounding those inherited errors. That war continues today, with no end in sight.

America's War for the Greater Middle East was a war to preserve the American way of life, rooted in an abundance of cheap energy. In 1969, imports already accounted for 20% of American consumption, and the next year U.S. domestic oil production peaked. By 1973, in retaliation for U.S. support for Israel in the October War, Arabs suspended oil exports to the U.S. and the West. Eventually, oil imports resumed, but the availability and price of gasoline had now become a matter of national concern. The hierarchy of national security priorities was beginning to shift from nuclear weapons and the Soviet Union.

President Nixon launched a plan to insure that Americans would not have to rely on any source of energy beyond our own (Project Independence), but the idea that retrenchment was needed did not sit well with some. There was a strong sense of entitlement, notwithstanding Britain's prior experiences.Read more ›

7 Comments 31 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...

Thank you for your feedback.

Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again

Report abuse

The Finest History of Our Middle Eastern Military Interventions That We Are Likely To Have

By Michael E. Murray MD on April 10, 2016

Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase

This volume will probably remain our best history of America's military ventures in the Middle East. Starting with the Carter administration the author gives an accurate and detailed story of what has happened, why it happened and what the results have been. It is a complete and fair description of a complex section of our history.
With the collapse of the Soviet Union a quarter century ago we had to find a different enemy to define ourselves against in order to continue our mission of civilizing the world. The nations of the Middle East have borne the brunt of our mission. Thanks be to God that we have a man as brilliant wise and fearless as Colonel Bacevich to tell us the story.

Comment 3 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...

Thank you for your feedback.

Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again

Report abuse

See both customer reviews (newest first)

Write a customer review

Set up an Amazon Giveaway

Amazon Giveaway allows you to run promotional giveaways in order to create buzz, reward your audience, and attract new followers and customers. Learn more

This item: America's War for the Greater Middle East: A Military History

Set up a giveaway