The Iraq War Reader; History, Documents, Opinions

by Micah L Sifry; Christopher Cerf

• ISBN13: 9780743253475
• ISBN10: 0743253477
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-05-06
• Publisher: Touchstone

Summary

Despite the torrent of coverage devoted to war with Iraq, woefully little attention has been paid to the history of the region, the policies that led to the conflict, and the daunting challenges that will confront America and the Middle East once the immediate crisis has ended. In this collection, Micah L. Sifry and Christopher Cerf, coeditors of the acclaimed Gulf War Reader, have assembled essays and documents that present an eminently readable, up-to-the-moment guide -- from every imaginable perspective -- to the continuing crisis in the Gulf and Middle East.

Here, in analysis and commentary from some of the world's leading writers and opinion makers -- and in the words of the key participants themselves -- is the engrossing saga of how oil economics, power politics, dreams of empire, nationalist yearnings, and religious fanaticism -- not to mention naked aggression, betrayal, and tragic miscalculation -- have conspired to bring us to the fateful collision of the West and the Arab world over Iraq. Contributors include:

Fouad Ajami
George W. Bush
Richard Butler
John le Carré
Noam Chomsky
Ann Coulter
Thomas Friedman
Al Gore
Seymour Hersh
Christopher Hitchens

Arianna Huffington
Saddam Hussein
Terry Jones
Robert Kagan
Charles Krauthammer
William Kristol
Nicholas Lemann
Kanan Makiya
Kevin Phillips
Kenneth Pollack

Colin Powell
Condoleezza Rice
Arundhati Roy
Edward Said
William Safire
Jonathan Schell
Susan Sontag
George Will

Table of Contents

Introduction and Acknowledgments	ix
PART ONE SINS OF THE FATHERS
Roots of Conflict: 1915--1989	3	(42)
Imperial Legacy	5	(13)
Phillip Knightley
The Rise of Saddam Hussein	18	(12)
Judith Miller
Laurie Mylroie
What Washington Gave Saddam for Christmas	30	(11)
Murray Waas
The Men Who Helped the Man Who Gassed His Own People	41	(4)
Joost R. Hiltermann
The First Gulf War	45	(44)
Realpolitik in the Gulf: A Game Gone Tilt	47	(11)
Christopher Hitchens
U.S. Senators Chat with Saddam	58	(3)
The Glaspie Transcript: Saddam Meets the U.S. Ambassador	61	(11)
The Experts Speak on the Coming Gulf War	72	(4)
Christopher Cerf
Victor Navasky
How Saddam Misread the United States	76	(13)
Kenneth Pollack
PART TWO AFTERMATHS OF THE GULF WAR
Saddam Survives	89	(38)
``We Have Saddam Hussein Still Here''	91	(10)
Andrew Cockburn
Patrick Cockburn
Why We Didn't Go to Baghdad	101	(2)
George Bush
Brent Scowcroft
Why the Uprisings Failed	103	(11)
Faleh A. Jabar
How Saddam Held On to Power	114	(13)
Kanan Makiya
Casualties of War	127	(36)
What Bodies?	129	(6)
Patrick J. Sloyan
Remember Nayirah, Witness for Kuwait?	135	(3)
John R. MacArthur
``Thank God for the Patriot Missile!''	138	(2)
Christopher Cerf
Victor Navasky
Did Iraq Try to Assassinate ex-President Bush in 1993? A Case Not Closed	140	(23)
Seymour M. Hersh
Sanctions and Inspections	163	(34)
A Backgrounder on Inspections and Sanctions	165	(9)
Sarah Graham-Brown
Chris Toensing
The Inspections and the U.N.: The Blackest of Comedies	174	(12)
Richard Butler
The Hijacking of UNSCOM	186	(5)
Susan Wright
Behind the Scenes with the Iraqi Nuclear Bomb	191	(6)
Khidhir Hamza
Jeff Stein
New Storms Brewing	197	(16)
An Open Letter to President Clinton: ``Remove Saddam from Power''	199	(3)
Statement: Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders	202	(3)
Televised Address to the Nation: ``The Costs of Action Must be Weighed Against the Price of Inaction''	205	(8)
President Bill Clinton
PART THREE WAR WITH IRAQ
The Impact of September 11th	213	(28)
Reflections on September 11th	215	(2)
Susan Sontag
Voices of Moral Obtuseness	217	(2)
Charles Krauthammer
Against the War Metaphor	219	(3)
Hendrik Hertzberg
An Open Letter to President Bush: ``Lead the World to Victory''	222	(3)
A Year Later: What the Right and Left Haven't Learned	225	(4)
Marc Cooper
Better Safe Than Sorry	229	(2)
Mona Charen
The Enemy Within	231	(2)
Daniel Pipes
``First They Came for the Muslims . . .''	233	(5)
Anthony Lewis
Not the War We Needed	238	(3)
Barbara Ehrenreich
The Bush Doctrine	241	(40)
What to Do About Iraq	243	(7)
Robert Kagan
William Kristol
State of the Union Speech: The Axis of Evil	250	(3)
President George W. Bush
The Next World Order	253	(13)
Nicholas Lemann
No Meeting in Prague	266	(2)
Robert Novak
Remarks at West Point: ``New Threats Require New Thinking''	268	(4)
President George W. Bush
The New Bush Doctrine	272	(6)
Richard Falk
Inside the Secret War Council	278	(3)
Mark Thompson
The Country Debates Going to War	281	(76)
War on What? The White House and the Debate About Whom to Fight Next	283	(12)
Nicholas Lemann
Don't Attack Saddam	295	(3)
Brent Scowcroft
Remarks to the Veterans of Foreign Wars: ``The Risks of Inaction Are Far Greater Than the Risk of Action''	298	(3)
Vice President Dick Cheney
Drain the Swamp and There Will Be No More Mosquitoes	301	(3)
Noam Chomsky
Questions That Won't Be Asked About Iraq	304	(3)
Congressman Ron Paul
The War Party's Imperial Plans	307	(2)
Pat Buchanan
Speech to the UN General Assembly: ``I Stand Before You Today a Multilaterialist''	309	(4)
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan
Speech to the UN General Assembly: ``A Grave and Gathering Danger . . .''	313	(6)
President George W. Bush
Peace Puzzle	319	(4)
Michael Berube
Stuck to the U.N. Tar Baby	323	(2)
George Will
Against a Doctrine of Pre-emptive War	325	(8)
Former Vice President Al Gore
Why We Hate Them	333	(3)
Ann Coulter
What's Missing in the Iraq Debate	336	(3)
Peggy Noonan
Wars Are Never Fought for Altruistic Reasons	339	(5)
Arundhati Roy
We Don't Need No Stinkin' Proof!	344	(3)
Arianna Huffington
The President's Real Goal in Iraq	347	(6)
Jay Bookman
The Imperialism Canard	353	(4)
Andrew Sullivan
The Debate in Congress	357	(28)
Of Pre-emption and Appeasement, Box-Cutters and Liquid Gold: Excerpts from the October 10, 2002 House Debate	359	(8)
Charles Rangel
Howard Berman
Dennis Kucinich
Nancy Pelosi
Tom DeLay
Richard Gephardt
Letter to Senator Bob Graham	367	(3)
CIA Director George Tenet
Iraq's Disarmament is Impossible Without Regime Change	370	(5)
Senator John McCain
No Place for Kings in America	375	(3)
Senator Robert C. Byrd
Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002	378	(7)
Regime Change: Why and Why Not	385	(70)
Two Faces, One Terror	387	(5)
Fouad Ajami
Deciphering the Bush Administration's Motives	392	(11)
Michael T. Klare
Can We Really Deter a Nuclear-Armed Saddam?	403	(9)
Kenneth Pollack
Why Saddam Wants Weapons of Mass Destruction	412	(2)
Charles A. Duelfer
An Unnecessary War	414	(11)
John J. Mearsheimer
Stephen M. Walt
Suicide from Fear of Death?	425	(9)
Richard K. Betts
Bring Back the Draft	434	(2)
Charles B. Rangel
The United States Has Gone Mad	436	(4)
John le Carre
Why I Am for Regime Change	440	(5)
Christopher Hitchens
An Unacceptable Helplessness	445	(5)
Edward Said
Why We Know Iraq Is Lying	450	(3)
Condoleezza Rice
I'm Losing Patience with My Neighbors, Mr. Bush	453	(2)
Terry Jones
Last Dance at the U.N.	455	(74)
A Case for Concern, Not a Case for War	457	(7)
Glen Rangwala
Nathaniel Hurd
Alistair Millar
Iraq Has No Interest in War	464	(1)
Saddam Hussein
Tony Benn
Presentation to the UN Security Council: A Threat to International Peace and Security	465	(14)
Secretary of State Colin Powell
MI6 and CIA: The New Enemy Within	479	(3)
Paul Lashmar
Raymond Whitaker
``Sleepwalking Through History''	482	(4)
Senator Robert Byrd
The Second Superpower	486	(4)
Micah L. Sifry
The Yes-But Parade	490	(2)
William Safire
Hawks Have My Head, Doves Have My Heart, Guess Which Wins?	492	(3)
Ian McEwan
Promises Abroad, While at Home Promises Go Forgotten	495	(2)
Derrick Jackson
The Long Bomb	497	(2)
Thomas L. Friedman
U.S.-British Draft Resolution On Iraq	499	(2)
Iraq's Disarmament Can Be Achieved By Peaceful Means	501	(2)
The War Begins: ``The Tyrant Will Soon Be Gone''	503	(3)
President George W. Bush
Pre-emptive Defeat, or How Not to Fight Proliferation	506	(23)
Jonathan Schell
PART FOUR THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY
The Future of Iraq	529	(62)
Iraq: The Imperial Precedent	531	(4)
Charles Tripp
The Fifty-first State?	535	(22)
James Fallows
Speech at the American Enterprise Institute: ``Iraq Is Fully Capable of Living in Freedom''	557	(3)
President George W. Bush
The Post-Saddam Problem	560	(5)
Dilip Hiro
Saddam's Real Opponents	565	(3)
Frank Smyth
In Iraqi Kurdistan	568	(12)
Tim Judah
Post-Saddam Iraq: Linchpin of a New Oil Order	580	(8)
Michael Renner
Our Hopes Betrayed: The U.S. Blueprint for Post-Saddam Government	588	(3)
Kanan Makiya
The Future of Pax Americana	591	(48)
The Unipolar Moment Revisited: America, the Benevolent Empire	593	(15)
Charles Krauthammer
America's Mission, After Baghdad	608	(6)
Lawrence F. Kaplan
William Kristol
America's Dreams of Empire	614	(4)
Pervez Hoodbhoy
Catastrophe as the Generator of Historical Change: The Iraq Case	618	(7)
Richard Butler
Regime Change	625	(8)
Lewis H. Lapham
Hegemony, Hubris and Overreach	633	(6)
Kevin Phillips
Appendixes	639	(32)
1. Key U.N. Resolutions	641	(12)
2. A Who's Who of the Iraqi Opposition	653	(18)
Permissions Acknowledgments	671	(6)
Index	677	(39)
About the Editors	716

Excerpts

Introduction And Acknowledgments The United States and the Middle East are at a critical moment in their individual and common histories. The first international crisis of the post-Cold War era culminated in war. But despite the flood of instant information and analysis provided by television and the press during the course of the Gulf War, most Americans remain ill informed about the history of the region, the policies that brought Iraq, Kuwait, and the U.S.-led coalition to confrontation, and the complex problems that will shape the postwar Middle East. The United States has embarked upon a qualitatively new involvement with the region -- a commitment that raises important questions: What is the proper role of U.S. power in the world today? Can it be guided by moral precepts, or is realpolitik and the balance of power the only choice for policymakers? What are the root causes of instability and discontent in the Middle East? Can lasting peace be brought to that tormented part of the world by the forcible intervention of outside powers? Are there other, less violent ways of resolving the disputes among the countries and peoples of the region? Can America's foreign policy be more tightly tethered to democratic debate and control? And what about the "peace dividend" and the pressing priorities back home? With these words, we began our 1991 anthology, The Gulf War Reader. Sadly, or ironically, the same observations and the same questions, with minor variations, seem just as relevant today. The Gulf War, which ended in an unsettled cease-fire ordered by the first President Bush, is being finished by the second President Bush. And despite the explosion of 24-hour news coverage and the Internet, most Americans still "remain ill informed" about the history and complexity of the region. For example, polls show that about half believe one or more Iraqis helped hijack the planes of September 11th, when in fact none were involved on that terrible day that is so altering our country's self-perception. (This observation is more than merely academic: cross-tabulation shows that those who believed that were 20 to 35 percent more likely to support going to war with Saddam.) Moreover, questions about the proper role of American power and the root causes of instability and discontent have only grown more urgent since our earlier book. Today, America, and indeed much of the Western world, face a new kind of enemy, a network of angry individuals that does not appear to be deterrable through conventional means. In the face of this threat, the leaders of the United States have embraced a new doctrine of pre-emptive action that they say is needed to prevent future September 11ths. Others see it as a dangerously destabilizing and self-defeating grab at imperial dominance.This book is meant to be a guide to the most urgent foreign policy questions of our time, as raised and interpreted by political leaders, academics, diplomats, journalists and critics. First, in Part One, "Sins of the Fathers," we examine how the West, and in particular the United States, came to clash with Saddam Hussein. What are the roots of Arab and Islamic resentment? Where did Saddam come from? How and why did the United States support him for so many years? And what happened when both sides, not quite allies but not enemies either, came to misunderstand each other's intentions over Kuwait?In Part Two, "Aftermaths of the Gulf War," we cover the period from 1991 through 2001. How did Saddam manage to survive the Kurdish and Shiite uprisings of 1991, and what might his unlikely survival teach future rulers of Iraq? In what ways did the Pentagon and the White House succeed in manipulating the American press and public, and what lessons in skepticism may we learn as citizens judging present statements from our leaders? How did the sanctions and inspections regimes of the 1990s fall apart? How far di