I wonder if the authors of this book have since gone back and read it to see how close they came to predicting the reasons for and the outcome of the Iraqi war, or at least its progress up to today? I admit that one of the reasons I picked up this book was to get a clear...
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I wonder if the authors of this book have since gone back and read it to see how close they came to predicting the reasons for and the outcome of the Iraqi war, or at least its progress up to today? I admit that one of the reasons I picked up this book was to get a clear view of the pro war crowd thinking and to judge their views with the advantage of hindsight . I also wanted to read this book because the two authors are both know to excellent writers and not too shabby on the intellectual front. Yes they are both poster children for very far right conservative thinking, but how else are you to truly understand an issue unless to read all sides of the debate? Lastly I had heard that if you wanted to get a solid brief explanation of the way the Bush Team thought about the Iraqi war then this was the book to read.
Given that the authors are rather conservation, it was humorous to me, if not totally expected, that they were able to work in so many digs at all the favorite whipping boys of the right wing in relation to foreign affairs. Judging by the rhetoric of the book, France will be the next country invaded followed by the UN, the offices of the Democratic party and ending at the office of Bill Clinton. I wondered if the attacks on this diverse group were truly heart felt or were they just the standard playbook that the authors fell back on out of habit. What struck me was that about 50% of the authors argument for taking action in Iraq was that it was vital to the U.S. national interests and that the U.S. should do everything it can along these lines, but that the authors felt that France, using the same justification, was somehow beyond the pale and close to a tyrannical world bully. It was also surprising to me that they complimented the Truman and Wilson administrations so often and tried to tie in what the Bush 2 administration wanted to do in Iraq with what these two leaders did during the World Wars. I could not tell if they truly felt this way or if they were trying to add some legitimacy to the Bush argument.
The last section of the book spent a good amount of time beating up on many ex officials of the Bush 1 administration that came out against the war. The area that, what in hindsight is very ironic, the authors gave these ex officials the most grief on was their predictions of the aftermath of the war. It turns out that, at the current time, exactly the difficulties that were predicted have come to pass and the rosy predictions of a smooth transition from Saddam to democracy 101 is not taking place. Overall the book was well written and the views for the pro war constituents are laid out in a logical order. It turns out that the facts, as they have come out, make about 75% of this book incorrect although I do not think that makes this book any less valuable because it truly is the overview of the war sales campaign. If I had one complaint of the book was that it was maybe just a little too high level, Kenneth Pollacks book The Threatening Storm provides far more detail and is a little less rabid in its overt partisan view of the world. Given the book is short and can be had rather inexpensively, it is a nice addition to your Bush 2 collection.
I wonder if the authors of this book have since gone back and read it to see how close they came to predicting the reasons for and the outcome of the Iraqi war, or at least its progress up to today? I admit that one of the reasons I picked up this book was to get a clear view of the pro war crowd thinking and to judge their views with the advantage of hindsight . I also wanted to read this book because the two authors are both know to excellent writers and not too shabby on the intellectual front. Yes they are both poster children for very far right conservative thinking, but how else are you to truly understand an issue unless to read all sides of the debate? Lastly I had heard that if you wanted to get a solid brief explanation of the way the Bush Team thought about the Iraqi war then this was the book to read.
Given that the authors are rather conservation, it was humorous to me, if not totally expected, that they were able to work in so many digs at all the favorite whipping boys of the right wing in relation to foreign affairs. Judging by the rhetoric of the book, France will be the next country invaded followed by the UN, the offices of the Democratic party and ending at the office of Bill Clinton. I wondered if the attacks on this diverse group were truly heart felt or were they just the standard playbook that the authors fell back on out of habit. What struck me was that about 50% of the authors argument for taking action in Iraq was that it was vital to the U.S. national interests and that the U.S. should do everything it can along these lines, but that the authors felt that France, using the same justification, was somehow beyond the pale and close to a tyrannical world bully. It was also surprising to me that they complimented the Truman and Wilson administrations so often and tried to tie in what the Bush 2 administration wanted to do in Iraq with what these two leaders did during the World Wars. I could not tell if they truly felt this way or if they were trying to add some legitimacy to the Bush argument.
The last section of the book spent a good amount of time beating up on many ex officials of the Bush 1 administration that came out against the war. The area that, what in hindsight is very ironic, the authors gave these ex officials the most grief on was their predictions of the aftermath of the war. It turns out that, at the current time, exactly the difficulties that were predicted have come to pass and the rosy predictions of a smooth transition from Saddam to democracy 101 is not taking place. Overall the book was well written and the views for the pro war constituents are laid out in a logical order. It turns out that the facts, as they have come out, make about 75% of this book incorrect although I do not think that makes this book any less valuable because it truly is the overview of the war sales campaign. If I had one complaint of the book was that it was maybe just a little too high level, Kenneth Pollacks book The Threatening Storm provides far more detail and is a little less rabid in its overt partisan view of the world. Given the book is short and can be had rather inexpensively, it is a nice addition to your Bush 2 collection.
