Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
Excellent case for bringing the troops home now, July 13, 2006
This outstanding book makes the case for the immediate withdrawal of all foreign troops from Iraq. This would meet the democratic demands of the Iraqi people, and also of the American and British peoples. In a September 2005 New York Times-CBS News poll, 52% supported the immediate withdrawal of US troops.
Arnove sums up, "Every single argument the Bush administration made to justify the invasion of Iraq has turned out to be false. Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction, posed no imminent threat to the United States, and had no connection to al-Qaeda or to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Iraq was attacked not because it had weapons of mass destruction, but because it did not (a fact that has not been lost on other potential targets of U. S. intervention). U. S. soldiers were not greeted as liberators, and the occupation has not paid for itself, or required few troops, or been quickly concluded. Nor has the occupation made the world safer or reduced the threat of weapons of mass destruction. Indeed, it has made Iraq, the Middle East, and the world far more dangerous."
From the start, the war on Iraq was a huge lie. As Arnove writes, "The attacks of September 11, 2001, provided the pretext the Bush administration needed to portray an offensive war to reshape the Middle East as a defensive measure to protect the people of the United States."
Everything we are told about the war is untrue. For example, we are told that the occupation troops conduct a humanitarian war on the ground. In reality, the USA is waging war largely by massive, unreported, bombing: the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing alone dropped more than 500,000 tons of bombs on Iraq between May 2003 and December 2005. We are told that there is no national resistance attacking the foreign occupier, just terrorists attacking civilians. In reality, for every attack against civilians, there are a hundred against the occupying forces.
British governments have always lied to us about matters of war and peace, of security and the national interest. This Labour government is different only because its lies have been more stupid, so that we have rumbled it more quickly.
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
An utterly compelling case for bringing the troops home now, May 10, 2006
"We find ourselves in a remarkable situation today," argues Anthony Arnove in _Iraq: The Logic of Withdrawal._
"Despite a massive propaganda campaign in support of the occupation of Iraq, a clear majority of people in the United States now believes the invasion was not worth the consequences and should never have been undertaken...
Yet many people who opposed this unjust invasion, who opposed the 1991 Gulf War and the sanctions on Iraq for years before that, some of whom joined mass demonstrations against the war before it began, have been persuaded that the U.S. military should now remain in Iraq for the benefit of the Iraqi people. We confront the strange situation today of many people mobilizing against an unjust war but then reluctantly supporting the military occupation that flows directly from it." (65-66)
Arnove's very readable book is aimed at resolving this paradox by providing a clear case for the immediate withdrawal of all foreign troops from Iraq. He poses the question -- in contrast to widespread fears of what might happen if the U.S. leaves Iraq -- of what happen if it stays.
The first five chapters lay the groundwork for the book's main argument in favor of immediate withdrawal. The first two chapters compare the claims made by politicians and pundits to the reality of the war's deadly consequences. These chapters comprise an exhaustive compendium of the most damning facts, quotes and stories about how the war was sold and the devastation it has wrought. By exposing the occupation from every angle -- from the unwillingness of the mainstream media to question the lies coming from the mouths of the government; to the corporate profiteering and sheer corruption of the neoliberal regime being imposed upon Iraq; to, most of all, the inhumanity and brutality of the U.S. as an occupying power -- they are an invaluable resource for activists.
The next three chapters place this occupation in its historical context, showing how it fits into a history of U.S. colonialism on the one hand, and a history of Iraqi occupation -- and resistance -- on the other. Because of how little this history is discussed in U.S. society, much of it will be new to many committed antiwar activists.
Having thus set the stage, Arnove attempts to lay out a solution in the last two chapters of his book. Chapter six puts forward eight arguments for immediate withdrawal from Iraq. Most of these arguments are framed as direct refutations of the common arguments to stay-for example, "The United States is not preventing civil war in Iraq," or "The United States is not honoring those who died by continuing the conflict." Taken together, they are utterly compelling.
Finally, chapter seven raises the question of how this vision can become a reality. It considers the factors that forced the U.S. to abandon its war in Vietnam and argues that all are beginning to be in play today, though they are not yet sufficient to outweigh the importance of occupying Iraq to a U.S. political elite determined to expand its imperial ambitions throughout the world. The heart of this chapter is its examination of the movements to end the occupation -- among students, soldiers and their families, unions, and Iraqis themselves -- and its analysis of what it will take for these movements to once again develop the power to defeat the mightiest superpower in world history.
As an antiwar activist, I feel that I've been waiting a long time for a book like this, and yet it could hardly be more timely. _Iraq: The Logic of Withdrawal_ is a crucial contribution toward clarifying why immediate withdrawal can be the only solution in Iraq -- and why an antiwar movement that takes this as its central demand is the only hope of achieving it.
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
Articulate, politically-sophisticated, July 10, 2006
Q: How many pages does it take to make a compelling case for immediate withdrawal from Iraq? A: Apparently not many when you have logic on your side!
It is a myth that Bush & Co.--though misguided--had the best of intentions at heart when they ordered the military invasion of Iraq in March of 2003. And this unfortunate myth prostrates the antiwar movement when it deludes itself into believing that a bloody occupation stemming from an illegal war can somehow be salvaged into something beneficial for anybody besides Halliburton.
Anthony Arnove's book explains the real roots of the Iraq war in the context of power and profit (not misguided humanitarianism), summarizes for the reader three years of blood-spattered occupation history, provides eight excellent reasons for immediate withdrawal and then discusses the ABC's of anti-imperialist struggle drawn from the history of the Vietnam War.
This isn't a catchall antiwar book to give to your chicken hawk uncle at the next family reunion. This is a book for the 50 million Americans who already consider themselves part of the antiwar movement and want some real answers about stopping the blood-letting. Or as the author puts it, "...the U.S. left in particular needs far greater clarity about the reasons for the war, the political context of the war, and an effective strategy for ending it." (page 98)
This is the most articulate, politically sophisticated yet easy-to-read appeal to bring our loved ones home now that I've read since the war began.
But don't trust this synopsis--read the book.
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