World War IV: The Long Struggle Against Islamofascism - Hardcover

Podhoretz, Norman

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385522215 ISBN 13: 9780385522212

Publisher: Doubleday, 2007

Synopsis

For almost half a century—as a magazine editor and as the author of numerous bestselling books and hundreds of articles—Norman Podhoretz has helped drive the central political and intellectual debates in this country. Now, in this beautifully written and powerfully argued book, he takes on the most controversial issue of our time—the war against the global network of terrorists that attacked us on 9/11.
 
In World War IV, Podhoretz makes the first serious effort to set 9/11 itself, the battles that have followed it in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the war of ideas that it has provoked at home into a broad historical context. Through a brilliant telling of this epic story, Podhoretz shows that the global war against Islamofascism is as vital and necessary as the two world wars and the cold war (“World War III”) by which it was preceded. He also lays out a compelling case in defense of the Bush Doctrine, contending that its new military strategy of preemption and its new political strategy of democratization represent the only viable way to fight and win the special kind of war into which we were suddenly plunged.
 
Different in certain respects though the Islamofascists are from their totalitarian predecessors, this new enemy is equally dedicated to the destruction of the freedoms for which America stands and by which it lives. But it took the blatant aggression of 9/11 to make most Americans realize that war had long since been declared on us and that the time had come to fight back. Past administrations, both Republican and Democratic, had failed to respond with appropriate force to attacks by Muslim terrorists on American citizens in various countries, and even the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993 was treated as a criminal act rather than an act of war. All this changed after 9/11, when the whole country rallied around President Bush’s decision to bring the war to the enemy’s home ground in the Middle East.
 
The successes and the setbacks that have followed are vividly portrayed by Podhoretz, who goes on to argue that, just as in the two great struggles against totalitarianism in the twentieth century, the key to victory in World War IV will be a willingness to endure occasional reverses without losing sight of what we are fighting against, what we are fighting for, and why we have to win.

About this title

Review:

Praise for "World War IV"
"Norman Podhoretz's book is an antidote to the attempt to return to the denial of the 1990s. It forcefully argues for an America truly on offense against Islamic terrorism."
-- Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York
"In this compelling book, Norman Podhoretz convinced me that using the term Third World War to describe the war on terror is wrong. This is the fourth world war (with the cold war as a third great struggle between freedom and tyranny), and it is a war we can win and must win. Every citizen interested in our survival as a free and safe country should read "World War IV,""
-- Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House
"You must read this forceful analysis of where we are--at war--and why we must remain engaged and be ready to act in defense of our national security."
--George P. Shultz, former U.S. secretary of state
"Stunning, brutally honest, indispensable--a huge service to truth and history, and to our prospects for prevailing."
--R. James Woolsey, director of central intelligence, 1993-1995
""World War IV" will make a lot of people unhappy. Thank goodness. With any luck, it will wake up many more."
--John R. Bolton, former United States ambassador to the United Nations
"Norman Podhoretz has always had the gift of moral--and linguistic--clarity. This new book is true to his passion and craft, a work that counsels patience and fortitude against encircling radicalisms. A terrific and rewarding read."
--Foaud Ajami, director of the Middle East Studies Program, The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies

"From the Hardcover edition."

"Full-thoated, unequivocal, intellectually sparkling" Mona Charen, National Review "Every citizen interested in our survival as a free and safe country should read World War IV." Newt Gingrich"Stunning, brutally honest, indispensable--a huge service to truth and history." R. James Woolsey [A] bracingly mordant account of the West's battle against Islamofascism. The Wall Street Journal "

About the Author:

NORMAN PODHORETZ is now editor at large for Commentary magazine, of which he was editor in chief for thirty-five years. He is also an adjunct fellow of the Hudson Institute and the author of numerous bestselling books, including Making It, Breaking Ranks, Ex-Friends, My Love Affair with America, and The Prophets.

About this edition

• Publisher: Doubleday
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0385522215
• ISBN 13: 9780385522212
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 230