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No War: America's Real Business in Iraq
Crisp, clean, bright and tight.
93 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
March 12, 2016
Essays on the Iraq War
5 May 2012
I should open by suggesting that this book was not actually written by Naomi Klein, and I am glad that I checked up on this before I wrote this review. The main reason is because it originally was supposed to be an essay that Klein wrote on the Iraq War, however the problem was that the essay that she wrote was free, and also she was writing the Shock Doctrine at the time which included everything that the essay contained, but in a much more expanded format. I can understand this namely because the Iraq War is really only one element in Klein's criticism of US foreign policy, and it is probably easier to understand the nature of the war in this larger context. As such the publishers included other essays in the work, however it appears that they decided to keep the name, and Klein's authorship on the book, most likely for sales purposes.
Now with this out of the way I will discuss the war further, though I would suggest looking at my commentary on The Shock Doctrine because, as I have mentioned above, this is only a small part of US foreign policy. However the war was probably one of the pivotal events that raised the awareness of US policy not just within groups in the United States, but throughout the world. In fact there was quite a lot of opposition to the war to the point that NATO would not even become involved (namely because France and Germany were blatantly opposed to the war). As such a new alliance, the Coalition of the Willing, was formed to fight the war. This coalition, though, was really only formed from the United States and England, with a group of small, almost insignificant, nations involved (and yes, I will include Australia among them).
As I look back at the events leading up to the war it really angers me at the almost blasé attitude that the leaders of the United States and England took towards the conduct of this war. Their main argument for war was to disarm Sadam Hussein, but as it turned out there was no need to disarm him because he didn't have any weapons of mass destruction, though one can argue that a baseball bat is a weapon of mass destruction. Then there was the argument that he was connected with Al Qaeda, which, once again, was absolute rubbish. However, after the fact, when it was discovered that neither of these presumptions turned out to be true, they fell back on the argument that he was a tyrant that needed to be removed. Hey, there are a lot of tyrants out there, and quite a few of them are in the pocket of the United States.
I have spoken elsewhere on the stubborn and disrespectful attitudes of members of the far right, and while they still try to bambozzle us by saying that Bush will be looked upon in history as a great president, I suspect that when we do look back on it we will remember him for two disastrous wars and an economic collapse. It is interesting that the anti-Bush books that I read indicated his complete inability to manage a financial system, and once again this proved to be true when Lehman Brothers collapsed and Bush proceeded to bankrupt America by shifting $700 billion dollars over to the banks. It has been termed as the biggest bank heist in recorded history, and it is something that I will continue to uphold, and surprise, surprise, it didn't actually solve anything, except bankrupting America, and socialising the debts. It is interesting that people who promoted the wonders of a free market economy threw out the rule book at this time and bailed out failed institutions. There is the argument that by allowing them to fail would have set off a much worse financial crisis, but as far as I am concerned it has likely only delayed the inevitable. This, however, is still to be seen.
One of the things that came out of this book was the purpose behind the invasion of Iraq. It is clear that it had nothing to do with weapons of mass destruction, or with removing a tyrant, but rather a resource grab. America needs oil to survive, and you will be surprised at how reliant our economy is on oil. When the Middle East turned off the taps in the 1970s the economy of the United State ground to a halt. However, they attempted to tell us that what they wanted to do was to turn Iraq into a modern capitalist society. However this would have all been a lie because the only people that would have benefited from this new Iraq would have been US corporations. It was supposed to be the shock doctrine in operation, with people going to sleep with one government and waking up with another, and then walking out to find a brand spanking new capitalist utopia filled with McDonalds, Apple Stores, and Foot Lockers (with probably a few Westfields thrown in).
However that never happened. It just goes to show how blind and foolish the planners of the war were. As it happened, when Sadam fled and the army disbanded, law and order broke down and a period of sustained looting broke out while the US army looked on, helpless. Once the dust settled, they once again thought they were in control, until a truck filled with explosives was parked outside the UN headquarters and detonated. That one attack signalled the beginning of a six year long insurgency that is still going on in parts. After about a year Iraq was on the verge of a civil war, with the Sunnis and the Shiites battling it out for sovereignty over their regions. Elections were held, but a Sunni boycott left parliament in control of the Shiites, so suddenly lots of boxes were lost. They want democracies, but only democracies that elect governments that they like. If the people elect a government that they don't like then democracy has failed. That is not a democracy, or if it is a democracy, it is only one in name only. It is more like an imperial state in which the leaders are hand picked by the Imperial overlords, but the way Napoleon set up his Republics in Western Europe.
Then there are the no bid contracts, handed out to select corporations that happened to have a connection to the government. That is more than just war profiteering, that is corruption. One of the companies that benefited big time from the war was Halliburton, a company in which Vice President Dick Cheney was president, whose wife still sat on the board, and between them they owned a substantial interest. The Iraq War was also one of the first modern wars fought using private contractors. Not only were many of the duties of the army contracted out to private corporations (with Halliburton picking up the most juicy contracts) but the US army was supplemented by mercenaries. These mercenaries, surprise, surprise, were not subject to the laws of the United States, and were also paid substantially more than the US soldiers.
The US, during this time, faced desertions from its army, conscientious objectors, and much like during the Vietnam era, many were fleeing over the border to Canada. Recruitment dropped and thus the national guard, normally set aside for defense of the homeland, was sent over to Iraq to supplement dwindling forces. Further, the soldiers on the ground found that their leave time was cut back, as was their pay, and their deployment time extended. No wonder troop morale was very low, and Donald Rumsfeld simply did not acknowledge or appreciate the situation that they were facing. It is all well and good to sit in your high castle, but if you abuse the people that you are ruling, sooner or later there is going to be a revolt.
Oh, and for those brain dead morons who are trying to claim that the Iraq War brought about the Arab Spring, think again. Iraq did not become a peaceful and wealthy land that was a beacon to the rest of the Middle East. No, instead it because a war zone where revenge killings were rife, minorities persecuted, with the population dwindling, and a shift to extremism. No, the Arab Spring was completely the opposite, and it probably had a lot more to do with Western ideas slowly filtering into the region than a failed war led by an incompetent and corrupt president (who, surprise, surprise, actually has warrants out for his arrest in some countries).
5 May 2012
I should open by suggesting that this book was not actually written by Naomi Klein, and I am glad that I checked up on this before I wrote this review. The main reason is because it originally was supposed to be an essay that Klein wrote on the Iraq War, however the problem was that the essay that she wrote was free, and also she was writing the Shock Doctrine at the time which included everything that the essay contained, but in a much more expanded format. I can understand this namely because the Iraq War is really only one element in Klein's criticism of US foreign policy, and it is probably easier to understand the nature of the war in this larger context. As such the publishers included other essays in the work, however it appears that they decided to keep the name, and Klein's authorship on the book, most likely for sales purposes.
Now with this out of the way I will discuss the war further, though I would suggest looking at my commentary on The Shock Doctrine because, as I have mentioned above, this is only a small part of US foreign policy. However the war was probably one of the pivotal events that raised the awareness of US policy not just within groups in the United States, but throughout the world. In fact there was quite a lot of opposition to the war to the point that NATO would not even become involved (namely because France and Germany were blatantly opposed to the war). As such a new alliance, the Coalition of the Willing, was formed to fight the war. This coalition, though, was really only formed from the United States and England, with a group of small, almost insignificant, nations involved (and yes, I will include Australia among them).
As I look back at the events leading up to the war it really angers me at the almost blasé attitude that the leaders of the United States and England took towards the conduct of this war. Their main argument for war was to disarm Sadam Hussein, but as it turned out there was no need to disarm him because he didn't have any weapons of mass destruction, though one can argue that a baseball bat is a weapon of mass destruction. Then there was the argument that he was connected with Al Qaeda, which, once again, was absolute rubbish. However, after the fact, when it was discovered that neither of these presumptions turned out to be true, they fell back on the argument that he was a tyrant that needed to be removed. Hey, there are a lot of tyrants out there, and quite a few of them are in the pocket of the United States.
I have spoken elsewhere on the stubborn and disrespectful attitudes of members of the far right, and while they still try to bambozzle us by saying that Bush will be looked upon in history as a great president, I suspect that when we do look back on it we will remember him for two disastrous wars and an economic collapse. It is interesting that the anti-Bush books that I read indicated his complete inability to manage a financial system, and once again this proved to be true when Lehman Brothers collapsed and Bush proceeded to bankrupt America by shifting $700 billion dollars over to the banks. It has been termed as the biggest bank heist in recorded history, and it is something that I will continue to uphold, and surprise, surprise, it didn't actually solve anything, except bankrupting America, and socialising the debts. It is interesting that people who promoted the wonders of a free market economy threw out the rule book at this time and bailed out failed institutions. There is the argument that by allowing them to fail would have set off a much worse financial crisis, but as far as I am concerned it has likely only delayed the inevitable. This, however, is still to be seen.
One of the things that came out of this book was the purpose behind the invasion of Iraq. It is clear that it had nothing to do with weapons of mass destruction, or with removing a tyrant, but rather a resource grab. America needs oil to survive, and you will be surprised at how reliant our economy is on oil. When the Middle East turned off the taps in the 1970s the economy of the United State ground to a halt. However, they attempted to tell us that what they wanted to do was to turn Iraq into a modern capitalist society. However this would have all been a lie because the only people that would have benefited from this new Iraq would have been US corporations. It was supposed to be the shock doctrine in operation, with people going to sleep with one government and waking up with another, and then walking out to find a brand spanking new capitalist utopia filled with McDonalds, Apple Stores, and Foot Lockers (with probably a few Westfields thrown in).
However that never happened. It just goes to show how blind and foolish the planners of the war were. As it happened, when Sadam fled and the army disbanded, law and order broke down and a period of sustained looting broke out while the US army looked on, helpless. Once the dust settled, they once again thought they were in control, until a truck filled with explosives was parked outside the UN headquarters and detonated. That one attack signalled the beginning of a six year long insurgency that is still going on in parts. After about a year Iraq was on the verge of a civil war, with the Sunnis and the Shiites battling it out for sovereignty over their regions. Elections were held, but a Sunni boycott left parliament in control of the Shiites, so suddenly lots of boxes were lost. They want democracies, but only democracies that elect governments that they like. If the people elect a government that they don't like then democracy has failed. That is not a democracy, or if it is a democracy, it is only one in name only. It is more like an imperial state in which the leaders are hand picked by the Imperial overlords, but the way Napoleon set up his Republics in Western Europe.
Then there are the no bid contracts, handed out to select corporations that happened to have a connection to the government. That is more than just war profiteering, that is corruption. One of the companies that benefited big time from the war was Halliburton, a company in which Vice President Dick Cheney was president, whose wife still sat on the board, and between them they owned a substantial interest. The Iraq War was also one of the first modern wars fought using private contractors. Not only were many of the duties of the army contracted out to private corporations (with Halliburton picking up the most juicy contracts) but the US army was supplemented by mercenaries. These mercenaries, surprise, surprise, were not subject to the laws of the United States, and were also paid substantially more than the US soldiers.
The US, during this time, faced desertions from its army, conscientious objectors, and much like during the Vietnam era, many were fleeing over the border to Canada. Recruitment dropped and thus the national guard, normally set aside for defense of the homeland, was sent over to Iraq to supplement dwindling forces. Further, the soldiers on the ground found that their leave time was cut back, as was their pay, and their deployment time extended. No wonder troop morale was very low, and Donald Rumsfeld simply did not acknowledge or appreciate the situation that they were facing. It is all well and good to sit in your high castle, but if you abuse the people that you are ruling, sooner or later there is going to be a revolt.
Oh, and for those brain dead morons who are trying to claim that the Iraq War brought about the Arab Spring, think again. Iraq did not become a peaceful and wealthy land that was a beacon to the rest of the Middle East. No, instead it because a war zone where revenge killings were rife, minorities persecuted, with the population dwindling, and a shift to extremism. No, the Arab Spring was completely the opposite, and it probably had a lot more to do with Western ideas slowly filtering into the region than a failed war led by an incompetent and corrupt president (who, surprise, surprise, actually has warrants out for his arrest in some countries).
August 11, 2015
Several essays in this book! All fantastic and although everything has taken place it's important to have a look out for narratives at the time. Especially the "No terrorism" essay
April 8, 2026
3.5⭐️ The first three essays were very good and play off of each other well. The first is the longest and strongest, with the next two adding more to its context in painting a picture of what was happening at the time. However, the fourth was a miss.
Naomi Klein starts it off with a look into the function and goals of the occupying forces of the US in Iraq and their capitalist goals that see the Geneva Conventions and Hague Regulations as more of an inconvenience as they try to find a way to auction off Iraq assets. Meanwhile, they are suprised that the people of Iraq are not, in fact, too shocked to retaliate (as they had planned) when they are laid off en mas and their infrastructure left to rot by the interim government of sorts. She goes on to speak with some Iraqi workers as well.
The following essay by Bryan Mealer looks at the businesses that are being propositioned to lay down some business in Iraq, including some lies that are even more spectacular (that is, overt bullshit) when laid right next to the first essay.
The third essay by Susan Watkins then looks more at puppet governments historically and how the Iraq government is being created at this time.
The fourth essay by Walter Laqueur was not so strong. It was about terrorism as a whole (or really, Islamic terrorism). The thesis altogether suffers in part because it was written before we knew some of what we know now, but also it just doesn't content with class inequality well. even insight from the first essay can be used to dispute parts of the final. So, one of the stars taken off was for this essay. It's useful in seeing what the understanding was historically, but not so much in understanding the issue of terrorism itself.
Naomi Klein starts it off with a look into the function and goals of the occupying forces of the US in Iraq and their capitalist goals that see the Geneva Conventions and Hague Regulations as more of an inconvenience as they try to find a way to auction off Iraq assets. Meanwhile, they are suprised that the people of Iraq are not, in fact, too shocked to retaliate (as they had planned) when they are laid off en mas and their infrastructure left to rot by the interim government of sorts. She goes on to speak with some Iraqi workers as well.
The following essay by Bryan Mealer looks at the businesses that are being propositioned to lay down some business in Iraq, including some lies that are even more spectacular (that is, overt bullshit) when laid right next to the first essay.
The third essay by Susan Watkins then looks more at puppet governments historically and how the Iraq government is being created at this time.
The fourth essay by Walter Laqueur was not so strong. It was about terrorism as a whole (or really, Islamic terrorism). The thesis altogether suffers in part because it was written before we knew some of what we know now, but also it just doesn't content with class inequality well. even insight from the first essay can be used to dispute parts of the final. So, one of the stars taken off was for this essay. It's useful in seeing what the understanding was historically, but not so much in understanding the issue of terrorism itself.
May 15, 2024
Despite Naomi Klein's name blazoned across the front cover, No War is, in fact, a collection of four essays discussing the Iraq war. Compact in just under 100 pages, it features Klein's classic, 'Baghdad Year Zero' essay which is worth reading alone.
April 3, 2011
This is an excellent little book. I enjoyed the peek behind the gloss of advertised American democracy. For me this is not particularly revelatory, as I had some awareness of the motivations and even the mechanics. However it did provide more interesting and revelatory details of American hegemony posturing as capitalistic democracy.
Three of the four writers who contributed were excellent and told their stories well. And that each approached the central subject from different perspectives — ground zero in Iraq looking for 'democratic' capitalism to be booming but only hearing bombs; ground zero in Vegas, with the booming hucksters hard selling that exported capitalism in bright lights and desert fountains; and then some of the details behind the capitalistic failure of that experiment in 'shock and awe' societal reformation project also known as Iraq.
I found the writing in the last essay to be a bit weaker than the others, but enjoyed his argument about the history and future of terrorism.
So why didn't it get 5 stars from me? I would have liked to have seen a bibliography with supporting documents. And yes, I know, that would kind of contradict what this short book was doing, but when making some of the strong criticism they make in the face of the media blitzkrieg of American and UN good intentions, some supporting evidence would have been appreciated. Even a facsimile of one of the glossy brochures from the Vegas hard sell would have been interesting.
As an example of what I mean, here is a mildly provocative assertion:
Go to egajd's books for my extended review, including additional citations.
Three of the four writers who contributed were excellent and told their stories well. And that each approached the central subject from different perspectives — ground zero in Iraq looking for 'democratic' capitalism to be booming but only hearing bombs; ground zero in Vegas, with the booming hucksters hard selling that exported capitalism in bright lights and desert fountains; and then some of the details behind the capitalistic failure of that experiment in 'shock and awe' societal reformation project also known as Iraq.
I found the writing in the last essay to be a bit weaker than the others, but enjoyed his argument about the history and future of terrorism.
So why didn't it get 5 stars from me? I would have liked to have seen a bibliography with supporting documents. And yes, I know, that would kind of contradict what this short book was doing, but when making some of the strong criticism they make in the face of the media blitzkrieg of American and UN good intentions, some supporting evidence would have been appreciated. Even a facsimile of one of the glossy brochures from the Vegas hard sell would have been interesting.
As an example of what I mean, here is a mildly provocative assertion:
On the ideological front there is little more light. Under rules endorsed by U.N. Resolution 1546, the January 2005 election allows Iraqjs to choose candidates selected by the U.S. embassy for a "transitional" administration with strictly limited powers, charged with drafting a constitution for a further, equally restricted ballot by January 2006. The hand-picked, thousand-member consultative conference convened in August proved a complete fiasco, with Allawi's thugs ejecting all critics.I think that this is probably correct, but the comment about the food from the U.N. being 'often rotted' and medicines 'diluted:' where is the supporting evidence? Also, where is the documented evidence about Kofi Annan's son? Or the estimate of 300,000 children who unnecessarily died in Iraq because of the economic sanctions raises the question of who did the estimate and how.
Internationally, the regime and its masters look forward to strengthening their position by planting the U.N. flag once again in Iraqj soil, but so far the Secretariat has not dared to return to Baghdad, with good reason. On conservative estimates, some 300,000 children under five died from disease and malnutrition under the U.N. sanctions regime of the 1990s, while the Secretariat skimmed administration fees of over $1 billion. In 1998 the U.N. contracts committee awarded the Oil for Food Programme contract for monitoring Iraqj imports (of often rotted food and diluted medicines) to Cotecna Inspection, a company that employed Kofi Annan's son Kojo as a consultant throughout the bidding process. In |une, U.N. special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, a leading member of the junta that canceled elections in Algeria in 1992 and broker of the Karzai regime in Afghanistan, rubber-stamped Bremer's selection of members of the Governing Council for reincarnation as ministers of the Interim Government; but, duty performed, could not wait to get out. When they do return, U.N. functionaries will need a large private army of their own to protect them (77-8).
Go to egajd's books for my extended review, including additional citations.
October 8, 2013
Leaves the reader more than a little disturbed.
The 95 small pages are really four lengthy, discordant magazine articles.
Klein's article, 'Baghdad Year Zero', is an enthralling look at how the Iraq War was ultimately a neocon economic experiment. Klein details how the neocon attempt at transforming Iraq into essentially a special economic zone devoid of any government control turned what was meant to be the best place to do business in the world into what the Economist soon ranked as the worst.
The last article, No Terrorism by Walter Laqueur, is a realistic portrait about Islamic terrorism in the world today. Laquer elucidates how traditional rationalisations for the causes of terrorism, namely poverty, dispowerment, disenfranchisement, racism etc., which are formed from left-wing terrorist in the 1960's, are outdated and erroneous in today's world. Other red herrings like the Palestinian-Israeli conflict are another red herring he dismisses, as religious terrorists will simply focus their attention on a new justification for their madness.
He muses on the implications of terrorists acessing nuclear wepons. His closing sentences sums his treasise well, with 'Terrorism, therefore, will conntinue- not perhaps with the same intensity at all times, and some parts of the globe may be spared altogether. But there can be no victory, only an uphill struggle, at times successful, at other times not.'
The 95 small pages are really four lengthy, discordant magazine articles.
Klein's article, 'Baghdad Year Zero', is an enthralling look at how the Iraq War was ultimately a neocon economic experiment. Klein details how the neocon attempt at transforming Iraq into essentially a special economic zone devoid of any government control turned what was meant to be the best place to do business in the world into what the Economist soon ranked as the worst.
The last article, No Terrorism by Walter Laqueur, is a realistic portrait about Islamic terrorism in the world today. Laquer elucidates how traditional rationalisations for the causes of terrorism, namely poverty, dispowerment, disenfranchisement, racism etc., which are formed from left-wing terrorist in the 1960's, are outdated and erroneous in today's world. Other red herrings like the Palestinian-Israeli conflict are another red herring he dismisses, as religious terrorists will simply focus their attention on a new justification for their madness.
He muses on the implications of terrorists acessing nuclear wepons. His closing sentences sums his treasise well, with 'Terrorism, therefore, will conntinue- not perhaps with the same intensity at all times, and some parts of the globe may be spared altogether. But there can be no victory, only an uphill struggle, at times successful, at other times not.'
August 24, 2011
A little disappointing. Naomi Klein's view of the Iraq War as part of the neocon shock doctrine...
February 22, 2013
This is a bite-sized version of the ideas that would become The Shock Doctrine. Available free and online. Definitely worth an hour or so of your time.
February 20, 2016
War has become advertising – packaged propaganda where true intent is buried. This collection of essays reflects on how the neocons beat the drums of war in Iraq and brought a country to its knees.
June 6, 2021
first three essays were fantastic. i love naomi klein.
last essay felt incredibly out of place, i didn't bother finishing it.
last essay felt incredibly out of place, i didn't bother finishing it.
November 16, 2019
2005, the written history of the previous two years of war and post war transition in Iraq. Disturbing in the extreme but a great starter.
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