War on Iraq (Mad As Hell Books) [Paperback]

Plenty of facts; the modern history of Iraq leading up to its current political situation. Just FYI the book wasnt actually written by Scott Ritter himself as he is only used as a source; a recent interview (Q&A session) with him covers 70% of the book.

I would recommend this book to anyone who's been following current events and would like to get some background info on the Iraq Crisis. The book is very informative and does shed alot of light on the poticis of the situation where the global media seems to be lacking. Well worth the [the price].

"We write to taste life twice, in the moment, and in retrospection." -
Anais Nin

Today there were another 16 US casualties in Iraq (BBC News 03/11/2003).
This follows on the heels of the announcement that more British soldiers
have been killed since the official end of the war in Iraq than during the
conflict itself (BBC News 29/10/2003). The same division in the deathtoll
has long been echoed by U.S. Defense Department figures. The U.S. and U.K.
governments insist that the continued presence of allied forces in Iraq is
justified. This largely relies on the soldiers being presented as
"liberators", a notion currently rejected by 85% of Iraqis (USATODAY.com
29/10/2003). The reason for allied forces being there at all seems to
depend on the existence of Weapons of Mass Destruction. As we all know,
these weapons have yet to be found and even former U.N. chief weapons
inspector Hans Blix has recently expressed doubts about the veracity of
such claims (Toronto Star 21/09/2003). Scott Ritter is another former UN
weapons inspector who preceded Blix in doubting the existence of Iraq's
Weapons of Mass Destruction. The difference is that he published his
concerns in "War On Iraq" in 2002 (U.K. Profile Books, U.S. Context Books)
before war was even waged. The luxury of hindsight allows us to see if
Ritter's predictions have stood the test of time, however brief.

In addition to the lack of Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction, Ritter
chiefly proposed that deposing Saddam Hussein would be ineffectual, simply
leading to an alternative head of the ruling Sunnis. Whilst this hasn't
been born out as yet, the 'Sunni Triangle', the Sunni Muslim-dominated
area north and west of Baghdad, has remained loyal to Saddam Hussein and
is proving most resistant to American-led reconstruction of the Iraqi

administration. Ritter also predicted that Turkey would provide military
bases for U.S. forces only if Kurdish independence be blocked. Indeed, the
Kurds have been included in talks about regime change with Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney, while Turkey has
stepped down from its March 1st. position denying U.S. troops the use of
bases in Turkey only enough to allow coalition planes through their
airspace. But they currently parry and thrust with the U.S. over southern
Kurdistan. Meanwhile, Ritter's suggestions that the Kurds would be
suspicious of U.S. designs for Iraq seem to be coming true; the perception
of U.S. troops as occupiers has grown most sharply in Shia and Kurdish
cities.

"War On Iraq" is mainly an interview held by author and Truthout.org
Managing Editor William Rivers Pitt. Ritter's experiences in the field as
a weapons inspector and intelligence officer back up his answers, and his
arguments are persuasive, although some questioning is clearly biased in
order to forward him as a patriot and innocent victim of his sex scandal
slur. During the interview Ritter provides systematic evidence in
contradiction of estimates of Iraqi pre-war military strength, the threat
cited in the U.S. and U.K. rationale for war. It is notable then that
there is only a handful of reviews at Amazon.co.uk, all positive about the
book and anti-war, in contrast to the more numerous, often heated and
agressive, defenders of the war who have posted their thoughts about the
book and its authors at Amazon.com. However, the american readers are
split amongst themselves, fairly evenly awarding the highest and lowest
scores.

Since the official end of the war, both sides of the Altantic have become
engrossed with internally-focused enquiries that only peripherally attend
to the apparent manipulation of military intelligence about Weapons of
Mass Destruction. In the U.K. the Hutton Enquiry investigated the death of
a leading scientist, and the U.S. intelligence bureau is considering the
intimidation of a retired Ambassador. It seems that these are easier
questions to answer than discovering the true reasons behind 'Operation
Enduring Freedom'. In the absence of any substantiated argument from the
people who took America and Britain to war, perhaps Ritter's is the best
account that we have.

J.F.Derry
30/10/2003