Wanting War

Wanting War is the first comprehensive analysis of the often contradictory reasons why President George W. Bush went to war in Iraq and of the war?s impact on future U.S. armed intervention abroad. Though the White House sold the war as a necessity to eliminate an alleged Iraqi threat, other agendas were at play. Drawing on new assessments of George W. Bush?s presidency, recent memoirs by key administration decision makers, and Jeffrey Record?s own expertise on U.S. military interventions since World War II, Wanting War contends that Bush?s invasion of Iraq was more about the arrogance of post?Cold War American power than it was about Saddam Hussein. Ultimately, Iraq was selected not because it posed a convincing security threat but because Baghdad was militarily helpless. Operation Iraqi Freedom was a demonstration of American power, especially the will to use it. Ironically, as Record points out, a war launched to advertise American combativeness is likely to lead U.S. foreign policymakers and military leaders to be averse to using force in all but the most favorable circumstances. But this new respect for the limits of America?s conventional military power, especially as an instrument of effecting political change in foreign cultures, and for the inherent risks and uncertainties of war, may prove to be one of the Iraq War?s few positive legacies. Record argues that the American experience in Iraq ought to be a cautionary tale for those who advocate for further U.S. military action. AUTHOR: Jeffrey Record is a professor of strategy at the Air War College in Montgomery, Alabama. He is the author of Bounding the Global War on Terrorism (2004), Dark Victory: America?s Second War against Iraq(2004), and Beating Goliath: Why Insurgencies Win (Potomac Books, Inc., 2007). He served in Vietnam as a pacification adviser and received his doctorate from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He lives in Atlanta. REVIEWS: "With his usual crystalline prose and piercing analysis, Jeff Record penetrates to the heart of the Bush administration's decision to invade Iraq, laying stark all of the flawed assumptions and logic. Moreover, he grounds his critique solidly in history. While many Americans are so convinced that the September 11 attacks altered history that they approach the Iraq decision as unprecedented, Record demonstrates that it has important antecedents in the Korean and Vietnam conflicts, both in how U.S. policymakers saw the world and in the effect that domestic politics had on strategic decisions. He also demonstrates how much ideas matter as Americans grapple with global challenges. For this, the book is an invaluable contribution to our understanding of American national security policy." -- Steven Metz, author of Iraq and the Evolution of American Strategy *