The War Over Iraq: Saddam's Tyranny and America's Mission

Kaplan, Lawrence F; Kristol, William

ISBN 10: 0786192259 ISBN 13: 9780786192250

Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks, 2003

Synopsis

In this timely book, Lawrence Kaplan and William Kristol take a hard look at Saddam Hussein. And they see the face of evil: someone who embraced a cruel blend of socialism, fascism, and pan-Arab nationalism when young and later became a coup plotter and a member of the Iraqi equivalent of Hitler’s Brown Shirts. Once in power, Saddam methodically created a terror state where thousands of citizens have been made to disappear and where the wives of government officials are raped by secret policemen to extort loyalty from the officials or their colleagues. Kaplan and Kristol provide a definitive analysis of the Bush doctrine and its shaping of a foreign policy that projects American influence on behalf of American interests and human freedom. They show that by enshrining in official policy the strategy of military preemption, regime change, and a vision of American power that is fully engaged on behalf of American principles, the Bush administration plans not only to liberate Iraq but also to set a new course for American policy in the twenty-first century. The War over Iraq looks back at how a sadistic dictator was allowed to acquire so much power on the world stage. But it also offers a road map for a more hopeful future.

About this title

About the Author

Lawrence F. Kaplan is editor of "Entanglements: Arguing America and the World," a New Republic blog devoted to foreign policy. Kaplan was previously editor of World Affairs and executive editor of the National Interest, both international relations quarterlies. He is also Distinguished Visiting Professor at the U.S. Army War College. He was formerly a senior editor at the New Republic, where he wrote about US foreign policy and international affairs. He has also written about foreign policy for the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, Slate, the New York Times, Washington Post, and numerous other publications. Kaplan is a graduate of Columbia University, Oxford, and the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

From Publishers Weekly

Between the 1991 Persian Gulf War and the current crisis over Iraq, neoconservative thinkers such as Kristol (editor of the Weekly Standard) worked to keep Saddam Hussein at the center of the U.S. foreign policy agenda. In this slim, well-argued book, Kristol and Kaplan, a senior editor at the New Republic, cogently make the case for a U.S. invasion of Iraq. The rationale behind the Bush administration's preemptive strategy, they write, is that Saddam Hussein is a dictator who threatens both his own people and the world, and therefore must be stopped before he does further harm. The weaknesses in the authors' case are the same as many find in the administration's-such as that the ties between Saddam and al-Qaeda are unclear, which Kristol and Kaplan acknowledge. But, they continue, "we do know that Saddam is a terrorist." Just as importantly, the book criticizes the policy of both the latter years of the first Bush administration and the Clinton years for allowing the Iraq threat to fester. Both governments had their reasons-Bush I's pragmatism and Clinton's focus on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict-but the world is much worse off, say Kristol and Kaplan. The background for a case for a U.S. strike is articulated well here.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0786192259
• ISBN 13: 9780786192250
• Binding: Audio CD