Circle in the Sand: Why We Went Back to Iraq
by Christian Alfonsi
List Price:
Our Price: $8.06
You Save: $18.89 (70%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.75 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Christian AlfonsiEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2006-10-10
ISBN: 0385515987
Number of pages: 480
Publisher: Doubleday
Book Reviews of Circle in the Sand: Why We Went Back to Iraq
Book Review: Why both Bush presidents waged war with Iraq
Summary: 4 Stars
With deliberation, Christian Alfonsi traces events preceding and following the first Bush's 1991 war to force Iraq out of Kuwait and proceeds to analyze how his administration's policy weaknesses and "victory fatigue" led to the subsequent 2003 invasion of Iraq on George W. Bush's watch.
Alfonsi cites mainly public sources in his Notes, supplemented by some material from interviews he conducted, and with these he does a creditable job supporting his depiction of crucial developments. For example, he documents how the U.S. ended up keeping troops stationed in Saudia Arabia after cessation of Gulf War combat even though the kingdom had been promised all American military would depart. And, the author emphasizes that pressures on the Bush administration to do something about ethnic cleansing in the Balkans distracted American officials to a point that Saddam could take advantage. However, despite a fluent treatment of what actually happened, Alfonsi tends to stay on the surface. Apparently, he doesn't have evidence for a deeper dig into the reasons people such as Defense Secretary (later Vice President) Dick Cheney did opinion 180s: Cheney stated in April 1991 that "It makes no sense at all" to embroil American troops in "a civil war inside Iraq." He said it would "literally be a quagmire." Yet, Alfonsi relates that in 2000 just after Bush and Cheney were declared the official winners of the election, Cheney said at a celebration dinner that now something could finally be done about removing Saddam Hussein. Huh? True, Saddam had been a thorn in the side of American power since the Gulf War, but the rising conviction of neoconservatives and those they could persuade that Iraq must have a new leader seems disproportional to his provocations. Perhaps the neoconservatives presumed that U.S. military power was so overwhelmingly superior that any target could be permanently vanquished without much American bloodshed or lengthy engagements. But -- again, probably because evidence is not readily available -- Alfonsi documents the jumps in key officials' (such as Cheney's) thoughts without thoroughly dissecting how they evolved.
CIRCLE IN THE SAND is, therefore, not a complete study of "why we went back to Iraq." But it does shine a steady light on some vital causes. And Alfonsi does not shrink from pointing out that al-Qaeda was born at least partially due to American activity in Saudi Arabia during the Bush I years, and that after 9/11 the Bush II administration allowed the chance to corner Bin Laden and other top-level al-Qaeda members to slip through their fingers largely because they considered Saddam Hussein and an invasion of Iraq a higher priority even though Iraq could not be convincingly connected to the 9/11 attacks.
Recommended.
Summary of Circle in the Sand: Why We Went Back to Iraq
An important, massively researched and revelation-filled work of history that uncovers how decisions made by the first Bush White House preordained the current administration?s decision to invade Iraq.?Is this a one-time thing, or should we foreshadow more to come??
This was the prophetic question posed by National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft in a secret April 1991 memorandum about the postwar management of Iraq, two months after the United States had defeated Iraqi forces in Operation Desert Storm?but left Saddam Hussein securely in power. Circle in the Sand challenges the widely held notion that Saddam?s survival was the result of a spur-of-the-moment decision by the first President Bush and his inner circle (especially the ?Reluctant Warrior? Colin Powell) to call off the Desert Storm campaign "one day too soon."
Through interviews with the Bush team?s principal decision makers?including President George H.W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Brent Scowcroft, and Paul Wolfowitz?as well as hundreds of never-before-revealed White House documents, Christian Alfonsi shows how Saddam?s survival was the result of a calculated decision, albeit one with disastrous consequences, which had settled the issue of how the first Iraq war would end long before it even began. Circle in the Sand also provides the definitive account of the collapse of the first Bush administration?s Iraq policy after the war.
Unprecedented in its detail about the decision making inside the Bush White House during the first Gulf War, Circle in the Sand provides not only a dramatic portrait of history in the making but also a compelling rationale for the United States? mishandling of the current situation in Iraq. Did we invade Iraq in 2003 to ensure that George W. Bush would not suffer an electoral fate in 2004 similar to his father?s defeat in 1992? Circle in the Sand forces us to consider that disturbing scenario and its larger implications for the American war on terror.
General Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Audiobooks on Cassette
- Audiobooks on CD
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- e-Books
- Engineering
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Medicine
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Iraq War
Circle in the Sand: Why We Went Back to Iraqby Christian Alfonsi
Doubleday; Published: 2006-10-10; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $8.06
Price in other shops:
Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terrorby Richard Clarke
Free Press; Published: 2004-09-14; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.99
Price in other shops:
Losing Iraq: Inside the Postwar Reconstruction Fiascoby David L. Phillips
Basic Books; Published: 2005-04-26; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $1.47
Price in other shops:
My Year in Iraq: The Struggle to Build a Future of Hopeby L. Paul Bremer III, Malcolm McConnell
Simon & Schuster; Published: 2006-01-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $1.00
Price in other shops:
Marching Toward Hell: America and Islam After Iraqby Michael Scheuer
Free Press; Published: 2008-02-12; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $8.21
Price in other shops:
Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife: Counterinsurgency Lessons from Malaya and Vietnamby John A. Nagl
University Of Chicago Press; Published: 2005-09-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.25
Price in other shops:
Journey of the Jihadist: Inside Muslim Militancyby Fawaz A. Gerges
Harcourt; Published: 2006-05-08; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $0.98
Price in other shops:
In the Belly of the Green Bird: The Triumph of the Martyrs in Iraqby Nir Rosen
Free Press; Published: 2006-05-02; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $1.48
Price in other shops:
Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Killby Jessica Stern
Harper Perennial; Published: 2004-09-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.99
Price in other shops:
Squandered Victory: The American Occupation and the Bungled Effort to Bring Democracy to Iraqby Larry Diamond
Holt Paperbacks; Published: 2006-03-21; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.23
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
The Occupation of Iraq: Winning the War, Losing the Peaceby Ali A. Allawi
Yale University Press; Published: 2008-03-18; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.19
Price in other shops:
The Shia Revival: How Conflicts within Islam Will Shape the Futureby Vali Nasr
W. W. Norton; Published: 2006-08-05; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $6.99
Price in other shops:
The War of the Worldby Niall Ferguson
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2007-10-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.30
Price in other shops:
The Iraq Study Group Report: The Way Forward - A New Approachby The Iraq Study Group, James A. Baker III, Lee H. Hamilton
Vintage; Published: 2006-12-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.25
Price in other shops:
At the Center of the Storm: My Years at the CIAby George Tenet
HarperCollins; Published: 2007-04-30; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $2.28
Price in other shops:
The End of Iraq: How American Incompetence Created a War Without Endby Peter W. Galbraith
Simon & Schuster; Published: 2007-06-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.63
Price in other shops:
Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East: 1776 to the Presentby Michael B. Oren
W. W. Norton; Published: 2008-02-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.03
Price in other shops:
Second Chance: Three Presidents and the Crisis of American Superpowerby Zbigniew Brzezinski
Basic Books; Published: 2007-03-05; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $6.17
Price in other shops:
Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq Warby Michael Isikoff, David Corn
Three Rivers Press; Published: 2007-05-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.72
Price in other shops:
Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone (Vintage)by Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Vintage; Published: 2007-09-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.55
Price in other shops: