History now being written regarding "Iraq War"

[KansDem]

I found this new title from the "Road to War" series. This title is meant to be used by middle ahd junior-high school students.

Causes of the Iraq War (The Road to War: Causes of Conflict)
Amazon

One customer review:

The first thing to understand is that we really do not have a historical perspective on the "Causes of the Iraq War" the way we do the American Revolution, Civil War, World War I and World War II, which are the other volumes in The Road to War: Causes of Conflict. George W. Bush is still in the White House and except for Colin Powell all of the members of the Bush administration listed among the Notable Figures at the start of Jim Gallagher's book still hold their positions. What these figures will say after they are out of office, when they start writing their memoirs, will provide information and insights that historians will find interesting. Then there is what might come out during the trial of Saddam Hussein, and while I think it is safe to say that few people expect any weapons of mass destruction to be found, you have to assume there are key things that are not known to the general public and the future historians of the Gulf War.

Gallagher begins with "A Deadline for War," with Bush's ultimatum for Saddam to step down, based on the U.N. Security Council Resolution 1441, which gave Iraq a "final opportunity" to disarm. Saddam agreed to comply with UNSCOM inspections, but when initial reports indicated this was not the case, Bush declared Saddam's time had run out and 90-minutes after the deadline had passed, the Iraq War began. The next chapter, "Colonialism, Nationalism, and Oil," looks at the root causes for the Iraq War (and the Gulf War), coming back to when the Ottoman Empire took control of Mesopotamia. What is fascinating here is how Kuwait remained an emirate, since eventually so much oil would be discovered underneath it; if Kuwait had always been a part of Iraq, how different would recent history have been? This chapter does a good job of detailing the complex relationship between Iraq and Kuwait over the centuries.

The fifth chapter reveals the key causes of the Iraq War in its title, "The Threat of WMD." This is not a claim that Iraq had WMDs, but rather that in the context of September 11th, the "war on terrorism," and the invasion of Afghanistan, the threat of Iraq acquiring them warranted taking action. The key sentence in this chapter talks about how key players in the administration "argued that a preemptive war launched to prevent a future attack could be considered self-defense, rather than a war of aggression." This becomes the central element of the Bush Doctrine. When the National Security Advisor and the director of the CIA were declaring publicly that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, young readers can see how war became inevitable. Again, Gallagher details the chronology of events that led step by step to Bush's ultimatum and the start of the Iraq War.

The final chapter is entitled "The Occupation of Iraq," not just because the Iraq War only lasted five weeks, but because the occupation has proven to be much more dangerous. In this chapter Gallagher critiques the official justifications for the war, that Iraq had WMDs and links to terrorists, and finds both to be weak. He does grant that Saddam Hussein was a murderous tyrant, and teachers and students alike should go back and read this book again in light of these revelations to consider again the causes that had been laid out to make their own judgments as to what really caused the war. The information provided here, just in terms of laying out all of the events that led up to the Iraq War, is the most impressive part of the book and hopefully students will appreciate the level of detail because it does allow them to make up their own minds about this ongoing controversy (which will certainly not end after long after the occupation, for which there is currently no real end in sight). Since these events served as the basis for the current U.S. foreign policy, knowing about them is important for any decision regarding continuing, changing, or abandoning the Bush Doctrine, which is going to be the key political debate for the foreseeable future.

...but when initial reports indicated this was not the case...--what were these reports? What is the critic referring to?

Sounds like the "Iraq War" will be a "what you make of it" -type of lesson.

[texastoast]

1. Iraq War or American War?

The Vietnamese called the Vietnam War the American War. I guess that it just depends on your perspective.

[libodem]

2. the Iraq War only lasted five weeks,

but because the occupation has proved to be much more dangerous.....Yep, that's about what Cheney predicted, five weeks. I wounder if some see it that way? Five weeks and *victory*. Then the occupation. The occupations will have these 'sub-wars', like Faluja, and operation this and that. But technically we already won the war? Because we shocked and awed them?