Review: The Forever War, Tell Me How This Ends
| DOI | 10.1177/002070200906400128 |
| Date | 01 March 2009 |
| Published date | 01 March 2009 |
| Author | Arnav Manchanda |
| Subject Matter | Review |
| Reviews |
| 296 | Winter 2008-09 | International Journal |
much Peking duck can one man’s arteries take? But one will learn little of
what was happening in China or of how and why Bush came to see himself
as an expert on Chinese affairs or a friend of Chinese leaders.
The editor, Jeffrey A. Engel, writes well and provides an introduction and
a concluding essay, “Bush in China: The making of a global president,” both
very good. His notes will be enormously useful to the g eneral reader.
Unfortunately, he does not provide sufficient Chinese context to allow his
audience to evaluate Bush’s performance.
Warren I. Cohen/University of Maryland and Woodrow Wilson International
Center for Scholars
THE FOREVER WAR
Dexter Filkins
New York: Knopf, 2008. 384pp, $28.00 cloth (ISBN 978-0307266392)
TELL ME HOW THIS ENDS
General David Petraeus and the Search for a Way Out of Iraq
Linda Robinson
New York: PublicAffairs, 2008. 432pp, $29.95 cloth (ISBN 978-1586485283)
Signs of progress in Iraq today are abundant but fragile. Former insurgents
have rejected al Qaeda and are in reconciliation talks with the Shiite-
dominated government.The government itself recently negotiated a bilateral
security pact with the United States, setting 2011 as the withdrawal date for
American troops. Violence levels have been declining steadily since 2007.
The country’s turnaround has been remarkable. After the 2003 invasion,
poor planning for the postwar occupation allowed a bloody insurgency against
coalition troops, the Iraqi government, and ordinary civilians to take hold.
For the four years that followed, the news out of Iraq focused almost
exclusively on suicide and car bombings, sectarian killings and atrocities, and
the ascendancy of al Qaeda terr orism. The American-led coalit ion seemed
powerless to protect Iraqi civilians and infrastructure.
New York Times
correspondent Dexter Filkins worked in Baghdad
during this period. Rather than sheltering in his office, he travelled across
Iraq to witness events firsthand. He shadowed American troops, met Iraqi
officials, and spoke to ordinary citizens whose lives had been shattered by the
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