America's War for the Greater Middle East: A Military History

America's War for the Greater Middle East: A Military History

LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD â€¢Â A searing reassessment of U.S. military policy in the Middle East over the past four decades from retired army colonel and New York Times bestselling author Andrew J. Bacevich

From the end of World War II until 1980, virtually no American soldiers were killed in action while serving in the Greater Middle East. Since 1990, virtually no American soldiers have been killed in action anywhere else. What caused this shift? Andrew J. Bacevich, one of the countryâ€™s most respected voices on foreign affairs, offers an incisive critical history of this ongoing military enterpriseâ€”now more than thirty years old and with no end in sight.

During the 1980s, Bacevich argues, a great transition occurred. As the Cold War wound down, the United States initiated a new conflictâ€”a War for the Greater Middle Eastâ€”that continues to the present day. The long twilight struggle with the Soviet Union had involved only occasional and sporadic fighting. But as this new war unfolded, hostilities became persistent. From the Balkans and East Africa to the Persian Gulf and Central Asia, U.S. forces embarked upon a seemingly endless series of campaigns across the Islamic world. Few achieved anything remotely like conclusive success. Instead, actions undertaken with expectations of promoting peace and stability produced just the opposite. As a consequence, phrases like â€œpermanent warâ€ and â€œopen-ended warâ€ have become part of everyday discourse.

Connecting the dots in a way no other historian has done before, Bacevich weaves a compelling narrative out of episodes as varied as the Beirut bombing of 1983, the Mogadishu firefight of 1993, the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and the rise of ISIS in the present decade. Understanding what Americaâ€™s costly military exertions have wrought requires seeing these seemingly discrete events as parts of a single war. It also requires identifying the errors of judgment made by political leaders in both parties and by senior military officers who share responsibility for what has become a monumental march to folly. This Bacevich unflinchingly does.

A twenty-year army veteran who served in Vietnam, Andrew J. Bacevich brings the full weight of his expertise to this vitally important subject. Americaâ€™s War for the Greater Middle East is a bracing after-action report from the front lines of history. It will fundamentally change the way we view Americaâ€™s engagement in the worldâ€™s most volatile region.

Praise for Americaâ€™s War for the Greater Middle East

â€œBacevich is thought-provoking, profane and fearless. . . . [His] call for Americans to rethink their nationâ€™s militarized approach to the Middle East is incisive, urgent and essential.â€â€”TheÂ New York Times Book Review

â€œBacevichâ€™s magnum opus . . . a deft and rhythmic polemic aimed at Americaâ€™s failures in the Middle East from the end of Jimmy Carterâ€™s presidency to the present.â€â€”Robert D. Kaplan, The Wall Street Journal

â€œA critical review of American policy and military involvement . . . Those familiar with Bacevichâ€™s work will recognize the clarity of expression, the devastating directness and the coruscating wit that characterize the writing of one of the most articulate and incisive living critics of American foreign policy.â€â€”The Washington Post

â€œ[A] monumental new work.â€â€”The Huffington Post

â€œAn unparalleled historical tour de force certain to affect the formation of future U.S. foreign policy.â€â€”Lieutenant General Paul K. Van Riper, U.S. Marine Corps (Ret.)
Country USA
Manufacturer Random House
Binding Kindle Edition
ReleaseDate 2016-04-05
Format Kindle eBook

Country	USA
Manufacturer	Random House
Binding	Kindle Edition
ReleaseDate	2016-04-05
Format	Kindle eBook

America's War for the Greater Middle East: A Military History

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