James Fallows presents Blind Into Baghdad: America's War in Iraq
In the autumn of 2002, Atlantic Monthly national correspondent James Fallows wrote an article predicting many of the problems America would face if it invaded Iraq. After events confirmed many of his predictions, Fallows went on to write some of the most acclaimed, award-winning journalism on the planning and execution of the war, much of which has been assigned as required reading within the US military. In Blind Into Baghdad, Fallows takes us from the planning of the war through the struggles of reconstruction. With unparalleled access and incisive analysis, he shows us how many of the difficulties were anticipated by experts whom the administration ignored. Fallows examines how the war in Iraq undercut the larger "war on terror" and why Iraq still had no army two years after the invasion. In a sobering conclusion, he interviews soldiers, spies, and diplomats to imagine how a war in Iran might play out. This is an important and essential book to understand where and how the war went wrong, and what it means for America. James Fallows has worked for The Atlantic Monthly for more than twenty years. His previous books include Breaking the News: How the Media Undermine American Democracy, Looking at the Sun, More Like Us and National Defense, which won the American Book Award for non-fiction. We're honored to have Orville Schell introduce this evening.- Cody's Books
Bio
James Fallows
James Fallows is The Atlantic Monthly's National Correspondent, and has worked for the magazine for more than twenty years. His previous books include Breaking the News: How the Media Undermine American Democracy, Looking at the Sun, More Like Us and National Defense, which won the American Book Award for non-fiction. His article about the consequences of victory in Iraq, "The Fifty First State?," won the 2003 National Magazine Award.
Mr. Fallows has been an editor for the Washington Monthly and Texas Monthly magazines, and a columnist for the Industry Standard. He writes frequently for Slate and the New York Review of Books and is chairman of the board of the New America Foundation. He has worked on a software-design team at Microsoft and as chief speechwriter for President Jimmy Carter.
selective listening and unquestionable decisionmaking by an administration backed up by media timidity and institutional appointees has made it easy for the administration to outwardly "wish and hope" in successfully bringing "democracy" to Iraq, while inwardly congradulating themselves for reviving the military option for a 21st century US foreign policy: a benchmark of failure to inspire plans for future success, that is, failing in Iraq and terrorizing the American people with the uncertainties of terrorist psychology and new motivations, the administration has forced American psychological and military involvement, from the rural family to the profits and advantages ascertained by the military-industrial-congressional complex. Bravo!
Fallows calls out the press for the fallacy of the coverage on Iraq and beyond since 9/11. He reveals that he discovered and published an article surrounding the prior to (2003) planned occupation of Iraq. The government plan to occupy Iraq is available online. It proves that the government was aware of the possible sectarian violence and civil war that would emerge from our invasion. If the occupation and it's consequences were carefully studied by this administration, then why didn't they develop a plan, and a plan b, and a back-up plan when all else fails?