- Hardcover: 496 pages
- Publisher: Random House USA Inc; 1 edition (13 Feb 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0375509283
- ISBN-13: 978-0375509285
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 16.5 x 4.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
-
Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
530,937 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #52 in Books > History > Britain & Ireland > Gulf War
The Threatening Storm
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| |||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
In The Threatening Storm, Kenneth M. Pollack, one of the world’s leading experts on Iraq, provides a masterly insider’s perspective on the crucial issues facing the United States as it moves toward a new confrontation with Saddam Hussein.
For the past fifteen years, as an analyst on Iraq for the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Council, Kenneth Pollack has studied Saddam as closely as anyone else in the United States. In 1990, he was one of only three CIA analysts to predict the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. As the principal author of the CIA’s history of Iraqi military strategy and operations during the Gulf War, Pollack gained rare insight into the methods and workings of what he believes to be the most brutal regime since Stalinist Russia.
Examining all sides of the debate and bringing a keen eye to the military and geopolitical forces at work, Pollack ultimately comes to this controversial conclusion: through our own mistakes, the perfidy of others, and Saddam’s cunning, the United States is left with few good policy options regarding Iraq. Increasingly, the option that makes the most sense is for the United States to launch a full-scale invasion, eradicate Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction, and rebuild Iraq as a prosperous and stable society—for the good of the United States, the Iraqi people, and the entire region.
Pollack believed for many years that the United States could prevent Saddam from threatening the stability of the Persian Gulf and the world through containment—a combination of sanctions and limited military operations. Here, Pollack explains why containment is no longer effective, and why other policies intended to deter Saddam ultimately pose a greater risk than confronting him now, before he gains possession of nuclear weapons and returns to his stated goal of dominating the Gulf region. “It is often said that war should be employed only in the last resort,” Pollack writes. “I reluctantly believe that in the case of the threat from Iraq, we have come to the last resort.”
Offering a view of the region that has the authority and force of an intelligence report, Pollack outlines what the leaders of neighboring Arab countries are thinking, what is necessary to gain their support for an invasion, how a successful U.S. operation would be mounted, what the likely costs would be, and how Saddam might react. He examines the state of Iraq today—its economy, its armed forces, its political system, the status of its weapons of mass destruction as best we understand them, and the terrifying security apparatus that keeps Saddam in power. Pollack also analyzes the last twenty years of relations between the United States and Iraq to explain how the two countries reached the unhappy standoff that currently prevails.
Commanding in its insights and full of detailed information about how leaders on both sides will make their decisions, The Threatening Storm is an essential guide to understanding what may be the crucial foreign policy challenge of our time.
For the past fifteen years, as an analyst on Iraq for the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Council, Kenneth Pollack has studied Saddam as closely as anyone else in the United States. In 1990, he was one of only three CIA analysts to predict the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. As the principal author of the CIA’s history of Iraqi military strategy and operations during the Gulf War, Pollack gained rare insight into the methods and workings of what he believes to be the most brutal regime since Stalinist Russia.
Examining all sides of the debate and bringing a keen eye to the military and geopolitical forces at work, Pollack ultimately comes to this controversial conclusion: through our own mistakes, the perfidy of others, and Saddam’s cunning, the United States is left with few good policy options regarding Iraq. Increasingly, the option that makes the most sense is for the United States to launch a full-scale invasion, eradicate Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction, and rebuild Iraq as a prosperous and stable society—for the good of the United States, the Iraqi people, and the entire region.
Pollack believed for many years that the United States could prevent Saddam from threatening the stability of the Persian Gulf and the world through containment—a combination of sanctions and limited military operations. Here, Pollack explains why containment is no longer effective, and why other policies intended to deter Saddam ultimately pose a greater risk than confronting him now, before he gains possession of nuclear weapons and returns to his stated goal of dominating the Gulf region. “It is often said that war should be employed only in the last resort,” Pollack writes. “I reluctantly believe that in the case of the threat from Iraq, we have come to the last resort.”
Offering a view of the region that has the authority and force of an intelligence report, Pollack outlines what the leaders of neighboring Arab countries are thinking, what is necessary to gain their support for an invasion, how a successful U.S. operation would be mounted, what the likely costs would be, and how Saddam might react. He examines the state of Iraq today—its economy, its armed forces, its political system, the status of its weapons of mass destruction as best we understand them, and the terrifying security apparatus that keeps Saddam in power. Pollack also analyzes the last twenty years of relations between the United States and Iraq to explain how the two countries reached the unhappy standoff that currently prevails.
Commanding in its insights and full of detailed information about how leaders on both sides will make their decisions, The Threatening Storm is an essential guide to understanding what may be the crucial foreign policy challenge of our time.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
First Sentence
As best we can tell, Iraq was not involved in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
As best we can tell, Iraq was not involved in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organise and find favourite items. |
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
You'll notice the date on the 2 existing reviews of this book. Mine is written much later, with the benefit of hindsight.
"one of the world's leading experts on Iraq" is how the author is described, and he lovingly details Saddam's Weapons of Mass Destruction. Bit of a problem there.
There weren't any.
"one of the world's leading experts on Iraq" is how the author is described, and he lovingly details Saddam's Weapons of Mass Destruction. Bit of a problem there.
There weren't any.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
"Increasingly, the option that makes the most sense is for the United States to launch a full-scale invasion, eradicate Saddam's weapons of mass destruction ..."
You would think that a book with such a wildly discredited description would receive less than 3 1/2 out of 5 stars, but you would be mistaken.
The central thesis of Pollack's book is that Iraqi is in the process of building nuclear weapons (now proven false) and is not far away from building them (also false). He even argued that Saddam Hussein had already build the nuclear weapon, and was only awaiting for the enriched uranium in order to activate one or two Hiroshima sized bombs (all false). He went on to argue that the cost of an invasion would be relatively modest, with few casualties on both sides (again false) and would last a relatively short period of time (yet again false).
In the book's cover, Mr Pollack is describes as "one of the world's leading experts on Iraq". Today he is still writing books, claiming to be one of the world's leading experts on Iran. Who knew you could make so much money simply by using the Find/Replace function of your word processor?
That is a beauty of being a self-described leading Middle-East expert. Like a fortune teller at a freak-show, your endless misfires will never be counted against your credibility. Even on claims, for which you are 100%, unquestionably discredited, you will still receive 3 1/2 out of 5 stars (70%).
Some people will always believe what they want to believe.
You would think that a book with such a wildly discredited description would receive less than 3 1/2 out of 5 stars, but you would be mistaken.
The central thesis of Pollack's book is that Iraqi is in the process of building nuclear weapons (now proven false) and is not far away from building them (also false). He even argued that Saddam Hussein had already build the nuclear weapon, and was only awaiting for the enriched uranium in order to activate one or two Hiroshima sized bombs (all false). He went on to argue that the cost of an invasion would be relatively modest, with few casualties on both sides (again false) and would last a relatively short period of time (yet again false).
In the book's cover, Mr Pollack is describes as "one of the world's leading experts on Iraq". Today he is still writing books, claiming to be one of the world's leading experts on Iran. Who knew you could make so much money simply by using the Find/Replace function of your word processor?
That is a beauty of being a self-described leading Middle-East expert. Like a fortune teller at a freak-show, your endless misfires will never be counted against your credibility. Even on claims, for which you are 100%, unquestionably discredited, you will still receive 3 1/2 out of 5 stars (70%).
Some people will always believe what they want to believe.
2 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
It is superb. The only problem was that it was never translated into 100 other languages so that the rest of the world could benefit from its insights, its moral clarity, its even-handedness, its sheer brilliance as an analysis of why Bush/Blair ended up doing the right thing (unfortunately under the wrong pretext) in March. It was a staple on the Bush team's reading list...but I'm not sure that Bush ever read it himself. The Economist said of this book in its double Christmas edition that '(one) shouldn't listen to what anybody has to say on Iraq unless they have read this book'. Having been vaguely anti-war in December 2002 pre-Pollack without really knowing why, I became pro-war after reading this book. Now of course it is just as dated as Magna Carta but if you want to understand why the coalition leaders did what they did in Iraq, Hutton, Kelly etc you should really go back to Pollack. The great pity of it all was that the coalition's entire case rested on WMD (Blair's doing) and (patently false) links to al-Qaeda (Bush's handiwork) and 9/11. When if they had just based their case on the unique nature of Saddam's odious regime as laid out in excruciating detail in The Threatening Storm it would have been that much easier to have made the case, persuaded the public of a noble cause and Blair, especially, wouldn't be in the mess he's in today. On second thoughts, perhaps they didn't read Pollack closely enough?
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Books > History > Countries & Regions > Asia > Middle East > Arabian Peninsula
- Books > History > North America > Gulf War
- Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Government & Politics > Countries & Regions > Middle East
- Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Warfare & Defence > Defence Strategy & Research
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
