Free America's War for the Greater Middle East: A Military History by Andrew J. Bacevich Page A

AR FOR THE G REATER M IDDLE E AST

    “ America’s War for the Greater Middle East by Andrew Bacevich lays out in excruciating detail the disasters orchestrated over decades by the architects of the American empire in the Middle East. Blunder after blunder, fed by hubris along with cultural, historical, linguistic and religious illiteracy, has shattered cohesion within the Middle East. The wars we have waged have given birth to a frightening nihilistic violence embodied in radical jihadism. They have engendered an inchoate rage among the dispossessed and left in their wake a series of failed and disintegrating states. These wars have, as Bacevich writes, laid bare the folly of attempting to use military force as a form of political, economic and social control. Bacevich is one of our finest chroniclers of the decline of empire. America’s War for the Greater Middle East is an essential addition to his remarkable body of work.”
    —CHRIS HEDGES , former Middle East bureau chief for The New York Times and author of Wages of Rebellion: The Moral Imperative of Revolt
    “Andrew Bacevich’s thoughtful, persuasive critique of America’s crusade for the Greater Middle East should be compulsory reading for anyone charged with making policy for the region. We cannot afford to repeat the past misjudgments on the area, for as Bacevich wisely argues, the stakes are nothing less than the future well-being of the United States.”
    —ROBERT DALLEK , presidential historian
    “In this fascinating work, one of America’s most provocative thinkers confronts our greatest geopolitical conundrum: the Middle East. No other book shows so clearly how U.S. interventions there have blended into a single long war. This is not just invaluable history, but also a cry of protest against policies that have devastated the Middle East while undermining America’s own national security.”
    —STEPHEN KINZER , senior fellow at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University
    “Andrew Bacevich has done a great service by providing a much-needed continuum in a foreign policy area that remains frustratingly random for too many Americans. He is one of a very few in academia with the credibility to outline dispassionately the shortcomings of responsible civilian and military leaders, on the facts and without histrionics or bitterness. His military background and training as a historian have enabled him to lay out not only the evolution of policy but also the details of the military endeavors themselves.”
    —JIM WEBB , former U.S. senator
    “Andrew Bacevich is a warrior academic who understands war and has the great talent to make the complex understandable. And so he has done with our Middle East conflict, which started with Desert One and endures today. A must read for soldiers, politicians, and the American citizen.”
    —MAJOR GENERAL PAUL D. EATON , U.S. Army (Ret.)



Copyright © 2016 by Andrew J. Bacevich
    All rights reserved.
    Published in the United States by Random House, an imprint and division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.
    R ANDOM H OUSE and the H OUSE colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.
    Maps by David Lindroth
    LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
    Names: Bacevich, Andrew J., author.
    Title: America’s war for the greater Middle East : a military history / Andrew J. Bacevich.
    Description: New York : Random House, [2016] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
    Identifiers: LCCN 2015038868 | ISBN 9780553393934 | ISBN 9780553393941 (ebook)
    Subjects: LCSH: United States—Foreign relations—Middle East. | Middle East—Foreign relations—United States. | United States—History, Military—20th century. | United States—History, Military—21st century.
    Classification: LCC DS63.2.U5 B3214 2016 | DDC 956.05/4—dc23 LC record available at lccn.loc.gov/2015038868
    eBook ISBN 9780553393941
    randomhousebooks.com
    Book design by Virginia Norey,