The Iraq War Reader (Electronic book text)

"Despite the torrent of coverage devoted to war with Iraq, woefully little attention has been paid to the history of the region, the policies that led to the conflict, and the daunting challenges that will confront America and the Middle East once the immediate crisis has ended. In this collection, Micah L. Sifry and Christopher Cerf, coeditors of the acclaimed Gulf War Reader, have assembled essays and documents that present an eminently readable, up-to-the-moment guide - from every imaginable perspective - to the continuing crisis in the Gulf and Middle East. Here, in analysis and commentary from some of the world's leading writers and opinion makers - and in the words of the key participants themselves - is the engrossing saga of how oil economics, power politics, dreams of empire, nationalist yearnings, and religious fanaticism - not to mention naked aggression, betrayal, and tragic miscalculation - have conspired to bring us to the fateful collision of the West and the Arab world over Iraq.