March 11, 2003
Iraq I

Power and weakness by Robert Kagan in Policy Review articulated the viewpoints of many in the current Bush administration. It was a highly influential article that gets quoted a lot. It is also very long (over 27 pages).

In 'Europe and America: Some know more about war', William Pfaff in IHT considers people who are looking at the same issues from a different looking glass.

Nex stop Baghdad? by Kenneth Pollack in Foreign Affairs magazine is the precursor to Pollack's highly influential book 'The threatening storm: the case for invading Iraq'. Pollack was the former director for gulf affairs at the National Security Council during the Clinton administration. The link is to the abstract of the article. To read the complete article, you gotta pay. Josh Marshall has an interview with Pollack in his weblog. Also, you may want to read Marshall's current thoughts on the subject. A lot of people are going through similar hand wringing.

An unnecessary war by John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt does a fairly decent job of countering the argument of Kenneth Pollack that Saddam is ?unintentionally suicidal.? It goes on to say that

Saddam reportedly decided on war sometime in July 1990, but before sending his army into Kuwait, he approached the United States to find out how it would react. In a now famous interview with the Iraqi leader, U.S. Ambassador April Glaspie told Saddam, ?[W]e have no opinion on the Arab-Arab conflicts, like your border disagreement with Kuwait.? The U.S. State Department had earlier told Saddam that Washington had ?no special defense or security commitments to Kuwait.? The United States may not have intended to give Iraq a green light, but that is
effectively what it did.

Dreaming of democracy by George Packer is an article on Iraqi dissidence built around the story of Kanan Makiya. Packer has a heart and writes with sympathy and knowledge.

This is transcript of a conversation with General Anthony Zinni. Retired Marine General Anthony Zinni commanded the US Central Command from 1997 to 2000. He was also President Bush's special emissary for Palestine-Israel dispute. In this conversation, he speaks against a war with Iraq now.

Guardian website has a collection of 30 interviews that present a spectrum of viewpoints.

Posted by Kaushik at March 11, 2003 07:13 AM | TrackBack
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