12:00PM

JUL 5 2007

The war on terror, imperialism and the end of the world

From Vanity Fair, The History Boys: In the twilight of his presidency, George W. Bush and his inner circle have been feeding the press with historical parallels: he is Harry Truman—unpopular, besieged, yet ultimately to be vindicated—while Iraq under Saddam was Europe held by Hitler. To a serious student of the past, that's preposterous. Writing just before his untimely death, David Halberstam asserts that Bush's "history," like his war, is based on wishful thinking, arrogance, and a total disdain for the facts. 

From Commentary, the CIA's record of failure, bad enough before George Tenet, is now beyond question. Can it be repaired? From the New York Review of Books, what Tenet knew: A review of At the Center of the Storm: My Years at the CIA by George Tenet. Did the Bushes get to George Tenet? Why did a man who seemed so bent on cashing in put off writing his memoir—at a loss of some $2 million? A review of Twice as Good: Condoleezza Rice and Her Path to Power by Marcus Mabry. A review of George Kennan: A Study of Character by John Lukacs. 

From Green Left Weekly, a review of A Question of Torture: CIA Interrogation, From the Cold War to the War on Terror by Alfred W. McCoy and American Torture: From the Cold War to Abu Ghraib & Beyond by Michael Otterman. A review of Five Years of My Life: A Report from Guantanamo by Murat Kurnaz. Judea Pearl on a call for moral clarity: " Moral relativism died with my son, Daniel Pearl. A Mighty Heart is a reminder of immutable distinctions". 

An essay on The Evolution and Importance of Army/Marine Corps Field Manual 3-24, Counterinsurgency; and Paradoxes of Counterinsurgency Operations: An excerpt from The U.S. Army/Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual. 

Imperial Washington: Cullen Murphy, author of Are We Rome?, takes in the sights and similarities (and an interview). Ian Buruma on Embracing the Empire. An op-ed on How a Revolution Saved an Empire. A review of Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic by Chalmers Johnson. 

A review of Have a nice doomsday: why millions of Americans are looking forward to the end of the world by Nicholas Guyatt. What would the world be like if there were no humans here? A review of The World Without Us by Alan Weisman.