# Interestng new book about the Iraq War - Answers lots of questions **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 9, 2005, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interestng-new-book-about-the-iraq-war-answers-lots-of-questions/325410 "2005-10-09T15:43:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2005, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interestng-new-book-about-the-iraq-war-answers-lots-of-questions/325410/1 "2005-10-09T15:43:55Z")
[The road to hell](http://www.salon.com/books/review/2005/10/07/packer/index.html) ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2005, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interestng-new-book-about-the-iraq-war-answers-lots-of-questions/325410/2 "2005-10-09T16:02:08Z")
Interesting doubtless. But what are we debating here? ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2005, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interestng-new-book-about-the-iraq-war-answers-lots-of-questions/325410/3 "2005-10-09T16:03:39Z")
Posted partial - One of the interesting things that the book appears to infer, is that one of the the prime drivers behind the Iraq War was the focused, burning desire by (mainly Jewish, but also non-Jewish) neo-cons to insure the security of Israel. In the past I’ve brushed these allegations aside as anti-Israeli, anti-Jewish prejudice, but the book appears to take a fairly objective view throughout, and (if true) this element stands out as something the more sophisticated Arab critics of the Iraq War might have right about, and not so “irrationally paranoid” after all. > [@](#): > > Oct. 7, 2005 | Most of the American left lined up against the war in Iraq. But some did not. Among the liberal intellectuals who supported the invasion was George Packer, a staff writer for the New Yorker. His new book, “The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq,” proves that holding strong opinions about a subject does not prevent a journalist of integrity from reporting the truth, even if it flies in the face of what he had believed. “The Assassins’ Gate” is almost certain to stand as the most comprehensive journalistic account of the greatest foreign-policy debacle in U.S. history. > > A funny thing happened to Packer: He went to Iraq. Reporting is a solvent that dissolves illusions quickly if one has an open mind, and Packer brought that and much more. His first-rate reporting from occupied Iraq, and his superb work covering the corridors of power in Washington, offers an extraordinarily wide-ranging portrait of the Iraq war, from its genesis in neoconservative think tanks to its catastrophic execution to its devastating effects on ordinary Americans and Iraqis. Anthony Shadid, in “Night Draws Near: Iraq’s People in the Shadow of America’s War,” offers a deeper portrait of the Iraqi people, but he does not have Packer’s majestic scope. “The Assassins’ Gate” is the best book yet about the Iraq war. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2005, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interestng-new-book-about-the-iraq-war-answers-lots-of-questions/325410/4 "2005-10-09T16:05:29Z")
> [@astro](#): > > [The road to hell](http://www.salon.com/books/review/2005/10/07/packer/index.html) Link doesn’t work for non-members. ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2005, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interestng-new-book-about-the-iraq-war-answers-lots-of-questions/325410/5 "2005-10-09T16:09:54Z")
“Too long dead, too late smart.” It is taking people a long time to realize the the US voters turned the country over to a group of real ivory-tower ideologues and installed a sophomoric ninny as President so they could have free rein. The WTC bombing gave them their opening because of the panic reaction to it. Nothing, absolutely nothing in the many predictions and projections of the chickenhawks as to the course of events in Iraq has been accurate. And now this in this morning’s (9 October) [Los Angeles Times.](http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-disconnect9oct09,0,561474.story?coll=la-tot-promo&track=morenews) ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2005, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interestng-new-book-about-the-iraq-war-answers-lots-of-questions/325410/6 "2005-10-09T16:12:08Z")
[QUOTE=David SimmonsNothing, absolutely nothing in the many predictions and projections of the chickenhawks as to the course of events in Iraq has been accurate.[/QUOTE] On thinking further, there was one correct prediction. The military operation went’ pretty much as predicted. Beyond that … ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2005, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interestng-new-book-about-the-iraq-war-answers-lots-of-questions/325410/7 "2005-10-09T16:11:40Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > Interesting doubtless. But what are we debating here? Well, I suppose (for debate purposes) it’s the notion of whether the Iraq War was, in large part, actually driven by the desire of Jewish (and some non-Jewish) neo-cons focused on the security of Israel. And beyond this whether Arab concerns that this was a somewhat cynical realpolitik chess move toward re-aligning the Arab political landscape with the express intent of protecting Israel, was possibly not so paranoid after all. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2005, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interestng-new-book-about-the-iraq-war-answers-lots-of-questions/325410/8 "2005-10-09T16:42:02Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Link doesn’t work for non-members. You have the option of watching a fifteen-second ad and getting access not only to this article but to all the site’s other articles for the rest of the day. I think that’s a reasonable access option for non-members. ---
**Author:** ![Carnac\_the\_Magnificent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Carnac\_the\_Magnificent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carnac_the_Magnificent)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2005, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interestng-new-book-about-the-iraq-war-answers-lots-of-questions/325410/9 "2005-10-09T22:10:03Z")
> [@David Simmons](#): > > “Too long dead, too late smart.” > > It is taking people a long time to realize the the US voters turned the country over to a group of real ivory-tower ideologues and installed a sophomoric ninny as President so they could have free rein. Don’t exclude Bush’s fundamentalism from your political calculus. His Iraq policy seems tinged with a jihadist’s metaphysical certitude, destiny and fervor.