Analysis of the Iraq war and the events surrounding it.
Let me tell you a little about how this world affairs book came to be. From the start I opposed the Iraq war as vehemently as I’ve opposed anything our government has done. My family can tell you, “When you talk to him, stay away from the war. He gets too angry and upset.” That was before the war started. After the war, after the invasion, it was anger mixed with such a strong feeling of helplessness. Talking with members of my family was no way to have an effect. They already knew what I thought.
Then Abu Ghraib made the news. I just sat down one evening and wrote a 7,000 word essay on the war: what it had done to us, what it had done to our friends, and of course its misdirection vis a vis our enemies. That formed the beginning, and I’m happy to say, the end of the essay well. I sent that essay to people on my mailing list, and received some interesting responses – more about those another time, perhaps.
Someday I hope people will read Ugly War, as people still read other critiques of other wars. We can’t change the facts or the consequences of this war now, though the time for redemption is never past. Sometime in the future, though, people can read about this war, perhaps, then draw some sound conclusions about how a great country – a state that offered hope for all humankind – soiled itself.