The Threatening Storm: The Case for Invading Iraq - Hardcover

Pollack, Kenneth M.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0375509283 ISBN 13: 9780375509285

Publisher: Random House USA Inc, 2002

Synopsis

For the past fifteen years, as an analyst on Iraq for the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Council, Kenneth Pollack has studied Saddam as closely as anyone else in the United States. In 1990, he was one of only three CIA analysts to predict the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. As the principal author of the CIA's history of Iraqi military strategy and operations during the Gulf War, Pollack gained rare insight into the methods and workings of what he believes to be the most brutal regime since Stalinist Russia.

About this title

Synopsis:

The definitive and timely account of the growing conflict between the United States and Iraq, and the case for an invasion of Baghdad, by a former CIA analyst and National Security Council staffer who is one of the world's leading experts on the subject. As the conflict in Afghanistan winds down, the question of what the United States should do about Iraq has risen to the forefront of American foreign policy. Hawks argue that toppling Saddam Hussein should be phase two in the war on terrorism, while those who pass for doves in the mainstream debate point to the difficulty of such an undertaking and argue that the goal of America's Iraq policy should be to revive UN weapons inspections and reenergize containment. In THE THREATENING STORM, Kenneth Pollack analyses the strategic, political and military forces at work in both countries, on the ground in Iraq and behind closed doors in Washington. Drawing from his seven years as Persian Gulf analyst for the CIA, Pollack offers an expert perspective on Iraq's military capabilities, Saddam Hussein, and relations with neighbouring Arab States. Pollack also examines the Bush administration's options in addressing the Iraqi threat.

His conclusion: the United States should invade Iraq, eliminate the present regime, and pave the way for a successor prepared to abide by its international commitments and live in peace with its neighbours. THE THREATENING STORM is full of commanding insights and information on how leaders from both sides will make crucial decisions in what may be the most decisive foreign policy issue in the coming year and beyond.

About the Author:

Kenneth M. Pollack is director of research at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution.

Kenneth M. Pollack wrote this book as Olin Senior Fellow and Director of National Security Studies for the Council on Foreign Relations. From 1995 to 1996 and from 1999 to 2001, he served as director for Gulf affairs at the National Security Council, where he was the principal working-level official responsible for implementation of U.S. policy toward Iraq. Prior to his time in the Clinton administration, he spent seven years in the CIA as a Persian Gulf military analyst. He is also the author of Arabs at War: Military Effectiveness, 1948–1991. He is a graduate of Yale University and received a Ph.D. in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife and is director of research at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution.

About this edition

• Publisher: Random House USA Inc
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0375509283
• ISBN 13: 9780375509285
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 496