On Iraq: Wiping Out the Legend
Wednesday 23 July 2008

by: Maya Schenwar, t r u t h o u t | Book Review


More than five years into the Iraq war, it's time to figure out how to prevent future wars like it, according to the authors of "Lessons From Iraq." (Photo: Rick Loomis / The Los Angeles Times)
A new book from Foreign Policy in Focus explains what made the Iraq war possible, and how we can stop the factors that precipitated it before they breed.

"We can't move on. The damage done by this war has to be examined if it is to be repaired."- Miriam Pemberton, editor of "Lessons From Iraq: Avoiding the Next War"

A silent mythos is enveloping the liberal consciousness in the waning days of the Bush presidency.

It spins like this: When it comes to Iraq, Americans' one reassurance is that this war can't possibly be repeated, not now that we've watched its consequences play out and caught a glimpse of the deception that caused it. As a result of Iraq, the logic goes, we will likely elect a new leader who railed against the war from its inception. We'll then shift toward a foreign policy that disavows offensive interventionism. We will make new friendships and repair old ones. We will live in peace.

However, in the forward to "Lessons From Iraq: Avoiding the Next War," a collection of essays from the progressive think tank Foreign Policy in Focus, editor Miriam Pemberton warns against such now-we-know-better thinking. She cautions against the oft-uttered mantra surrounding large-scale deeds of evildoing, "Never Again."

"The lessons in this book will not be a guarantee against the next war, even supposing they all took hold," Pemberton writes. "There will be a next war."

I winced as I read that line. I wanted to close the book. But because I also wanted to review it, and because the contributors to "Lessons From Iraq" are smart people, and because - despite all pacifist inclinations - I know that, throughout history, there has always, always been a next war, I kept reading.

If you too are riding the "hope" wave into 2009, holding your breath for a war vaccine, you too should keep reading, and not because your bubble needs bursting. You should keep reading because "Lessons From Iraq" delineates a realistic path along which we can direct our hope. It also teaches us to recognize those other, pernicious species of bubble, to ensure that, when they evolve again, we can burst them before they get too big.

The 16 bite-size essays that make up "Lessons From Iraq" are divided into three sections: Purposes, Ways and Means and Collateral Damage. Some of the freshest essays lie in the Purposes section. In Neta C. Crawford's "The Dangerous Leap: Preventive War," the author distinguishes between "preemptive" and "preventive" wars. A preemptive war is one that defends against an immediate, certain threat. (Picture Saddam with his finger poised over the nuclear button at the point the US stormed Baghdad.) A preventive war is initiated based on an amorphous, ambivalent, might-be threat. (Picture what really happened: an attack based on shaky intelligence and overconfident statements about a potential - not actual - risk.) An attack motivated by only the possibility of a threat turns war into a self-fulfilling prophecy, according to Crawford.

Much of the rest of the book addresses these problems: the unwise reasons for and disastrous consequences of preventive war. In "American Imperialism," Chalmers Johnson looks at the transformation of US foreign policy into an agenda that is both imperialist (regarding the "East") and isolationist (regarding Europe). It's an archaic model, according to Chalmers - one used by provincial-thinking presidents of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, for whom far-off lands were "pure abstractions" waiting to be conquered.

http://www.truthout.org/article/on-iraq-wiping-out-legend

This is not the whole article, there is more. I think this book maybe an interesting read.

If and when the neo cons ,the hawks , the Zionists ans Israel want America to attack a nation , America will be happy to obey . They have too much influence and power on any Administration including the senate and the congress . Is it clear enough ?.

I am sure that this post is cool but,....There is a lot of material there to read....but, it is someone else's word...I could care less about knowing other people's opinions. Your own opinion should be able to carry you thru.

I got plenty of opinions.

I know 2 people who are literally "In the War".....don't want either one of them there.

If it makes me a Punk or disloyal...so be it....I don't want more of my friends to get "Messed up"...I am not a War Fan.......not my fault.

My opinion is that the book previewed looks like an interesting read, that is all. Just sharing, in case others would like to read the book also.

If taking a life of an innocent human being is not important then what is important in this planet ?.
Wars cause the deaths of innocent people .
I hope men and women will appreciate peace and spread it around the globe .
No to violence , no to wars .
Yes and yes to love and peace .
PEACE..........................TO...........ALL...

I agree

Dang it! Stop quoting me people. Seriously.

I am here to meet people who can think for themselves....

Not here to screw with anyone but, I am here for original thoughts....it is the only way I can learn.

I know what I wrote...

Other people know what was said...

Ease off that friggin quote button....some people ain't stupid....We can read....Stop making us re-readthe same posts. I wouldn't do it to you guys!

Gonna be disappointed if This thread can't survive without The "Quote".

Got $20...name your odds....

I easily bet $20 bones that someone wont read this thread and throw out a "quote"

If you think I am wrong.....I want to meet you.

opps....

I guess I owe you 20 bones..A forum is a place to express your opinion. Want to learn go to school..Being hateful only breeds hatefulness...

War is sometimes necessary.

For example, World War II.

We faced the spectre of an enemy bent to taking over the world.

That enemy was Nazi Germany, allied from Fascist Italy and Imperial Japan.

We had to win. The consequences of failure were too great.

However, I do not believe in preemptive wars, wars started just because we 'think' someone might do something, or to grab the resources of a country.

There is such a thing as a 'just war'.

Principles of the Just War:

http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pol116/justwar.htm

Just wait a few more years!

They are already developing ways to fight a war without human involvement. Without American human involvement anyway.
As soon as that's accomplished, and they are close, Presidents like Bush will be more willing to engage in wars like Iraq.
The sad thing is America is full of complacent non involved citizen who will sit and watch it all sitting comfortably at home in their armchairs!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6852832/