{PDF EPUB} the Iraq War Reader History Documents Opinions by Christopher Cerf the Iraq War Reader: History Documents Opinions by Christopher Cerf
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Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} The Iraq War Reader History Documents Opinions by Christopher Cerf The Iraq War Reader: History Documents Opinions by Christopher Cerf. Since President Bush declared the end to major combat operations on May 2, 2003, Americans have had a chance to revisit the official push for war in documentaries like BUYING THE WAR here on BILL MOYERS JOURNAL and in other reporting. Now Christopher Cerf and Victor Navasky have come out with a new book, MISSION ACCOMPLISHED: OR HOW WE WON THE WAR IN IRAQ, compiling the innacurate predictions pro-war experts have made before and since the invasion. Dick Cheney at the American Enterprise Institute, 1994: Update Required. Sorry in order to watch this video clip you need the latest version of the free flash plug in. CLICK HERE to download it and then refresh this page. "It's a very serious organization," Cerf told THE TIMES, "that studies the works of experts in every field and comments upon it." Calling themselves "meta-experts," Cerf and Navasky have kept their tongues in their cheeks with their ongoing study of experts, and the results have been a hilarious, often biting, commentary on our media culture. The Institute's newest book, MISSION ACCOMPLISHED, focuses on experts who assured the nation that war with Iraq would be, among other things, a "cakewalk" (Ken Adelman, THE WASHINGTON POST): "Military action will not last more that a week." -Bill O'Reilly, THE O'REILLY FACTOR "The next six months in Iraq will settle the case once and for all." -Thomas Friedman, THE NEW YORK TIMES "We know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Saddam Hussein has been pursuing weapons of mass destruction." -Fred Barnes, Fox News "The evidence [Colin Powell] presented to the United Nations — some of it circumstantial, some of it absolutely bone-chilling in its detail — had to prove to anyone that Iraq not only hasn't accounted for its weapons of mass destruction but without a doubt still retains them. Only a fool — or possibly a Frenchman — could conclude otherwise." -Richard Cohen, WASHINGTON POST. Today's experts, say Cerf and Navasky, are part of a proud tradition, stretching back at least to the dawn of recorded history. The original publication of the Institute of Expertology, THE EXPERTS SPEAK, compiled a host of prescient-sounding predictions: "I tell you Wellington is a bad general, the English are bad soldiers; we will settle the matter by lunch time." -Napolean Bonaparte, at breakfast with his generals on the morning of the Battle of Waterloo, June 15, 1815 "[I]t seems pretty clear that no civilized people will ever again permit its government to enter into a competitives armament race." -Nicholas Murray Butler, president of Columbia University, October 17, 1914 "You will be home before the leaves fall from the trees." -Kaiser Wilhelm, addressing departing troops, August 1914 "Dan, it looks very good. The Vietcong are going to collapse within weeks. Not months but weeks." -Walt Whitman Rostow, Chairman of the Policy Planning Council of the U.S. Department of State, remark to Daniel Ellsberg, July 1965. Buying the War How did the mainstream media get it so wrong in the lead up to the Iraq War? Al Qaeda and Iraq Who exactly is the enemy in Iraq and how does al Qaeda fit in? Bill Moyers talks with West Point Instructor, Brian Fishman, and Middle Eastern and International Affairs Professor Fawaz Gerges, discussing the growing power of al Qaeda and its connections to the war in Iraq. What's Next for Iraq? What's Next for Iraq?NPR's Deborah Amos — just back from Damascus — and THE NEW YORKER's George Packer on the Iraq war and what you haven't heard from Washington. Photographer Lori Grinker on Displaced Iraqis Photographer Lori Grinker takes viewers to Amman, Jordan for a devastating look at the fate of Iraqis displaced by the conflict. Mark Fiore As seen on the show, Mark Fiore's animated political cartoons. Inside Iraq Iraq through the eyes of Iraqi journalists working for McClatchy newspapers. Baghdad Observer McClatchy Baghdad bureau chief Leila Fadel blogs her experiences. Alive in Baghdad A weekly Web news show that focuses on the lives of Iraqis. KATHLEEN HALL JAMIESON Our political analyst returns to take stock of the never-ending primary season. NAVASKY AND CERF ON THE PROBLEM WITH EXPERTS Victor Navasky and Christopher Cerf's new book MISSION ACCOMPLISHED looks back at what the experts told us would happen in Iraq. BUYING THE WAR: INTERACTIVE TIMELINE Explore the media coverage surrounding the case for war in Iraq with our interactive timeline of video, headlines and documents. FIVE YEARS EXPLAINING 'MISSION ACCOMPLISHED' It has fallen to the White House Press Secretaries to defend and explain President Bush's May 1st landing on the USS Abraham and the controversial "Mission Accomplished" banner. Christopher Cerf. Christopher Cerf works with the Zigler Center’s The School of the 21st Century Unit, focusing on its early literacy work. He has been working with Matia Finn-Stevenson and a group of Center fellows and colleagues, including Michael Levine and Diantha Schull, on the creation of a pilot program to test the efficacy of aligning research-based multi-media early language and literacy materials with classroom pedagogy and community engagement/planning. Select Publications. Thanks & Giving: All Year Long by Marlo Thomas & Christopher Cerf (Editors) (2005). The Iraq War Reader: History, Documents, Opinions by Christopher Cerf & Micah L Sifry (Editors) (2003). Free to Be You and Me and Free to Be a Family by Marlo Thomas & Christopher Cerf (Editors ) (1998). The Iraq War Reader: History Documents Opinions by Christopher Cerf. For eight long years in the 1980s, Saddam Hussein had fought a war against revolutionary Iran. Most of the small oil.producing states in the Persian Gulf region along with Saudi Arabia, which contains one of the world's largest oil reserves, supported Iraq financially during its war against Iran. At various times during the eight years, Iraqi efforts were also supported by the United States. When the war ended in 1988, Iraq had accumulated a significant debt, and its economy had been greatly weakened. Since much of Iraq's economy depended on revenues from oil, Iraq urged its neighbors belonging to OPEC to lower their oil production so that oil prices might rise and Iraq could then begin making higher profits from its own oil production. Iraq and Kuwait each represented about 9 percent of the world's oil reserves in 1990, but Iraq's population was nine times larger than Kuwait's and much more dependent on oil revenue. Early in 1990, Kuwaiti overproduction actually drove the price of oil down from $22 per barrel to $13. This significant drop placed an even greater strain on Iraq's struggling economy. (Matthews, Ken, The Gulf Conflict and International Relations (London: Routledge, 1993), 201) Saddam Hussein warned the Kuwaitis that this overproduction had to stop or Iraq would take action against Kuwait. President George H.W. Bush had been receiving assurances from around the Arab world that the positioning of Iraqi troops along the Kuwaiti border was nothing more than Iraqi saber-rattling. President Mubarak of Egypt, King Hussein (no relation to Saddam) of Jordan, and King Fahd of Saudi Arabia all passed along this communication, in part, because they had been given this explanation by Saddam Hussein himself. The general message coming out of the Arab world portrayed the situation as an Arab dispute that would be resolved diplomatically. On 25 July 1990, the American ambassador to Iraq, April Glaspie, was summoned to meet with Saddam Hussein, who questioned her directly about America's position toward Iraq. During the meeting Ambassador Glaspie reportedly said, ". .[W]e have no opinion on the Arab.Arab conflicts, like your border disagreement with Kuwait. We hope you can solve this problem using any suitable methods via . President Mubarak [of Egypt]." ("The Glaspie Transcript" in Micah L. Sifray and Christopher Cerf, The Gulf War Reader: History, Documents, and Opinion (New York: Random House, 1991), p. 130). Hussein responded that he had agreed to diplomatic meetings through Mubarak and had told the Egyptian president to "assure the Kuwaitis and give them our word that we are not going to do anything until we meet with them." Saddam went on to tell Ambassador Glaspie, "There, you have good news." ("The Glaspie Transcript," p. 133). In Washington D.C., Richard Haass, the director for Near East and South Asian affairs on the U.S. National Security Council, laid out three possible scenarios for President Bush: (1) This Iraqi military movement was "muscular diplomacy"; that is, Iraq was trying to intimidate Kuwait into a diplomatic compromise on oil production quotas and loan repayment; (2) Iraq was positioning itself to take a northern Kuwaiti oil field in order to compel a negotiated settlement; (3) Iraq was preparing an all-out invasion and intended to occupy Kuwait. Haass had already concluded that the third scenario was the least likely, and upon receiving a report from Ambassador Glaspie, he forwarded his report with a sense that the crisis was actually winding down. Most major leaders were convinced that occupation was not going to happen, given Saddam Hussein's comments. Thus, the threat of occupation of Kuwait was seen in Washington and around the Arab world as a ruse. When the Iraqis invaded and occupied Kuwait, the reaction in Washington and the Arab capitals was shaped by the general sense that leaders had trusted Saddam Hussein and had been deceived. Christopher Cerf. Christopher Cerf (born August 19, 1941) is an American author, composer-lyricist, voice actor, puppeteer, and record and television producer.