War Without End ─ The Iraq War in Context

This contribution of Schwartz (sociology, Stony Brook U.) to the literature on the American invasion and occupation of Iraq goes beyond the rather narrow military focus of many other books, widening the lens to take in the major political, economic, and social aspects of the war. He begins by analyzing the goals of the war, beginning, naturally enough, with the role of oil in the geopolitics of American involvement in the Middle East from the Carter Doctrine on forward, but also addressing US wishes to establish a pro-American, economically-neoliberal beachhead in the region. In terms of military issues, he brings up such rarely mentioned topics as collective punishment, torture, the establishment of death squads, and the destruction of Iraqi cities, the latter topic leading logically into an examination of the confluence of factors that have resulted in the deconstruction, not reconstruction, of Iraqi society, including the degradation of electricity and water infrastructures, the massive refugee crisis, the gutting of the educational and medical systems, and the decline of the oil industry. Finally, he addresses the national politics of the occupation, examining the chimera of sovereignty, the creation of Shia city-states, semisovereign Kurdistan, rebellious Sunni states and the Anbar "Awakening," and the ethno-political fracturing of Baghdad, concluding with an analysis of how the American project in Iraq has foundered, routine proclamations of the "success of the surge" notwithstanding. Throughout, Schwartz focuses on the impact of all these issues on those most affected by the occupation, the Iraqi people. Annotation c2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)