War Over Iraq: Saddam's Tyranny and America's Mission [Hardcover]

As the founder of the influential conservative think-tank American Patriots who Never Fought In War But Advocate Violent Imperialism In the New American Century (APNFWAVINAC), Kristol successfully promoted the idea that a group of draft-dodging muddle-headed bureaucrats should be the main decision makers when it comes to America going to war. APNFWAVINAC made it a primary goal of the U.S. to liberate the good people of the Arab and Muslim countries that Kristol loves so much from their tyrannical leaders, just so long as none of their own children had to fight. APNFWAVINAC published the historic open letter to George W. Bush titled Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iraq, advocating the violent overthrow of the Iraqi leader in order to free the good people of Iraq. John McCain used the letter as the source of a hilarious and much beloved joke during his 2008 presidential campaign.

Among the high level members of APNFWAVINAC who were signatories to the famous letter were other great intellectuals and patriots such as Paul "never served in the military but I have a girlfriend at age 62" Wolfowitz, Douglas "f***ing stupidest guy on earth" Feith, John "kiss-up, kick-down" Bolton, Dick "no bid contract for my war profiteering Haliburton pals and we're in the last throws of the insurgency" Cheney, as well as many other brilliant and highly accomplished warriors and scholars of world history and military strategy. These APNFWAVINAC members were so deeply troubled by reports of Iraqis being terrorized by Saddam that they felt they had to intervene with their carefully researched and passionately presented plea to Bush to bomb Iraq. Kristol even volunteered to join the Army in order to defend the Iraqi people that he loved so dearly and to support the military that he has revered all of his life. Even though the Army had dropped many of the enlistment requirements to attract recruits, Kristol still failed the physical because of his disproportionately large mid-region.

Kristol fought bravely for his country in Viet Nam and in the Persian Gulf (I'm guessing). And if he had children, they would have been the first to volunteer to fight and die in Iraq. He sacrificed his life and lost a large part of his brain on the battlefield in Hanoi (I'm guessing on that one too). His extended tours in both wars testify to his deep sense of patriotism and duty to his country. So when he repeatedly calls for the U.S. to go to war with Iraq, Iran, Korea, France, Germany, New Zealand, and against the radical leftists in Boston and Seattle, he is speaking as a man who has seen first-hand the horrors of war and does not make such recommendations lightly.

Although he has been wrong in every single prediction and observation he has ever publicly made, we must remember that he is a genial commentator on the FOX channel with a charming sense of humor and he is a brave veteran who served his country with great honor and continues to maintain the attractive APNFWAVINAC website calling for war with all non-American countries so we should heed his valuable, if completely wrong advice.

Kaplan and Kristol add an interesting perspective to the debate over the war in Iraq. Their argument is that this war is definitely not about oil, and not just or even mainly about weapons of mass destruction. It is about liberating Iraq and making the world both more democratic and a safer place for democracy. It's a breezy, argumentative book, not really so much an attempt to convince opponents of the war as an attempt to stake a theoretical claim that something they call a distinctly American internationalism is what informs the Bush Administration's action against Iraq. Naturally, Clinton's Administration is targetted for particular contempt, but interestingly enough Bush I and even Reagan are also criticised as narrow realists.

What's missing from this analysis is any sense of history and of how the US is perceived outside its borders--and even outside the Beltway. Not everyone is going to be able to accept the notion that the US should simply be trusted to do the right thing. The book's authors clearly have either no idea or--scarier still--no interest in how a book like this will be read by people who have either watched or experienced first-hand a less-than-idealistic USA in action.

At the precise time of writing (Baghdad seems to have fallen today) and for the next few months, the Kristol/Kaplan theory will be riding high. But whatever this book claims, what they charitably consider to be activist idealism is not going to turn into doctrine. It won't because the US is always going to feel the need for the moral flexibility that realism offers. "Operation Iraqi Freedom" is a catchy slogan, but will it be followed by, say, "Operation Uzbeki Freedom", aimed at liberating Uzbeks from a brutal and corrupt dictatorship in Tashkent that happens to be allied with Washington against radical Islam? Of course not. Nor is it going to be followed by "Operation Pakistani Freedom" or "Operation Zimbabwean Freedom".

My own conclusion is that Kaplan and Kristol either do not really believe what they are arguing, or they are dangerously naive utopians, not unlike the dogmatists who steered the Kremlin into wild Third World adventures in the 1960s and 1970s. I suspect it's the former, and this book is mainly about raising the authors' own profiles for the next few months. Otherwise, someone as ideologically pure as Kristol claims to be would have resigned several times over in protest during the Reagan Administration (e.g. over Iran-Contra) and refused to serve under a realist such as George H W Bush.

It's fascinating to watch just how far Kristol and Kaplan will go to make the evidence fit their theory. They ask us to believe, for example, that attacking Iraq today is akin to Kennedy's decision to quarantine Cuba. The fact that Kennedy was faced with a nuclear threat that could have unfolded in a matter of weeks, not years or decades as in the case of Iraq, seems lost on Kaplan and Kristol, who instead conclude that war on Iraq is further justified because Kennedy did consider a military option for a while. Amazing stuff.

This book will naturally appeal to ignorant ideologues who seek confirmation of their reflexive militaristic instincts, but it is actually quite worthwhile for others to read too. Just keep asking yourself questions while you read it.

Some folks just refuse to let real facts get in the way of their good story...how pedestrian that those who disagree with conservatives would call this book racist...apparently they lack original thought. Misters Kristol & Kaplan lay out a complete, fact laden picture of the Real Saddam. This isn't just current events, they cover Saddam and his interactions with the U.S. from his rise to power. The authors are rightly critical of Bush 1's errors in the first Gulf War and lay out a strong case of the clear and present danger this butcher-ous tyrant presents to people here in the U.S., the middle east, and his own country.

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