America's War for the Greater Middle East

A Military History

By: Andrew J. Bacevich

Narrated by: Rob Shapiro, Andrew J. Bacevich

Length: 15 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's summary

Retired army colonel and New York Times best-selling author Andrew J. Bacevich provides a searing reassessment of US military policy in the Middle East over the past four decades.

From the end of World War II until 1980, virtually no American soldiers were killed in action while serving in the Greater Middle East. Since 1990, virtually no American soldiers have been killed in action anywhere else. What caused this shift? Andrew J. Bacevich, one of the country's most respected voices on foreign affairs, offers an incisive critical history of this ongoing military enterprise - now more than 30 years old and with no end in sight.

During the 1980s, Bacevich argues, a great transition occurred. As the Cold War wound down, the United States initiated a new conflict - a war for the Greater Middle East - that continues to the present day. The long twilight struggle with the Soviet Union had involved only occasional and sporadic fighting. But as this new war unfolded, hostilities became persistent. From the Balkans and East Africa to the Persian Gulf and Central Asia, US forces embarked upon a seemingly endless series of campaigns across the Islamic world. Few achieved anything remotely like conclusive success. Instead, actions undertaken with expectations of promoting peace and stability produced just the opposite. As a consequence, phrases like permanent war and open-ended war have become part of everyday discourse.

Connecting the dots in a way no other historian has done before, Bacevich weaves a compelling narrative out of episodes as varied as the Beirut bombing of 1983, the Mogadishu firefight of 1993, the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and the rise of ISIS in the present decade. Understanding what America's costly military exertions have wrought requires seeing these seemingly discrete events as parts of a single war. It also requires identifying the errors of judgment made by political leaders in both parties and by senior military officers who share responsibility for what has become a monumental march to folly. This Bacevich unflinchingly does.

A 20-year army veteran who served in Vietnam, Andrew J. Bacevich brings the full weight of his expertise to this vitally important subject. America's War for the Greater Middle East is a bracing after-action report from the front lines of history. It will fundamentally change the way we view America's engagement in the world's most volatile region.

Read by Rob Shapiro, with a Prologue and Note read by the author.

©2016 Andrew J. Bacevich (P)2016 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"In one arresting book after another, Bacevich has relentlessly laid bare the failings of American foreign policy since the Cold War. This one is his sad crowning achievement: the story of our long and growing military entanglement in the region of the most tragic, bitter, and intractable of conflicts." (Richard K. Betts, director, Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies, Columbia University)

"An unparalleled historical tour de force certain to affect the formation of future U.S. foreign policy.... Every citizen aspiring to high office needs not only to read but to study and learn from this important book. This is one of the most serious and essential books I have read in more than half a century of public service." [Lieutenant General Paul K. Van Riper, US Marine Corps (Ret.)]

"Bacevich asks and answers a provocative, inconvenient question: In a multigenerational war in the Middle East, 'Why has the world's mightiest military achieved so little?'" (Graham Allison, director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, and Douglas Dillon Professor of Government at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government)

Now you will know why we are in such a mess.

First things first I am an total fan boy of Andrew J. Bacevich. It's rare that a man so thoroughly inside the military machine will defect from the home team, will provide a counter narrative to out interventionist foreign policy, but Bacevich will. It helps that he was never fully engulfed by the beast, and clocked out as a full colonel, not bad, but not all that great either in the scheme of things.

So what does this undistinguished veteran have to say about "The War for the Greater Middle East"? Well it's safe to say he is not entirely happy about how it's worked out since Jimmy Carter laid out the "Carter Doctrine" that has been our underlying philosophy about how to do business in a rather dangerous corner of the world.

More to the point the old peanut farmer is raked over the coals by the author for his feckless formulations and his even more feckless execution. But it's all good when Ronald Regan, Don Reynaldo the Great, the old Gipper steps to the plate, right? Hardly, Regan does not make the same mistakes Carter does, he makes bigger and better ones. All this is laid out in excruciating details with pride of place given to the double dealing done during Iran-Contra and how that managed to infuriate both the Iranians and the Saudis.

Democrats zero for one, ditto for Republicans. Next up is George H. Bush, can he at least tie up the board for Team Republican? Swing and a miss. Bacevich once more goes into the weeds to show that we very much need to pay attention to the man behind the curtain. Gulf War One was less the spectacular win it was presented and more of the ambiguous no decision that our author presents it as.

Team Republican 0-1-1 Next up the sleazy, morally easy Bill Clinton and once more into the breach dear friends with a policy which seems designed to not only fail, but fail spectacularly, which it did. Team Democrat zero for two, Team USA 0-1-2. Can Bush the younger finally put a win on the board?

We know the answer to that question. We are living in the big, nasty, complete failure of W. Bush's attempt to finish the job in Iraq. 0-1-3 Team USA with the war now metastasizing to the bad lands of the Hindu Kush.

Which leads us to the present day and Team Democrat up at the plate again. The war has further spread to not only the Horn of Africa but to Africa proper. Obama is less a commander in chief and more of a fire fighter in chief attempting to put out flash fires all over the world but never asking how all that kindling got there in the first place.

With the end of the book and the present election before us it really does not look like Obama will chalk up a win for the "War for the Greater Middle East" If Hillary gets to sit in the big desk of 1600 Pennsylvania maybe she might right this battered and sinking ship of state. However, if Bacevich is correct in his interpretations and opinion, it does not look like either Team Hillary nor team USA will pull the win. Team Trump? It's not the personalities as Bacevich makes painfully clear. It is the policy, a policy that Trump seems to have no interest in studying, never mind changing.

Bacevich has not written a happy book, more of a j'accuse, but it should be a requirement of any thoughtful citizen to read or listen to this effort. Only by learning the awful errors of the past do we have any chance of finding a correct path out of our disastrous Carter Doctrine in the Near East and beyond.

The U.S., The Middle East and Why We Lose

America's War for the Greater Middle East: A Military History, written by: Andrew J. Bacevich, narrated by: Rob Shapiro. This is a complete, and I do mean complete HISTORY of the United States’ of America’s military and to a lesser extent covert effort to police and set the political values of the entire Middle East family of nations. By the word, history, I mean the academic discipline using the narrative to examine and analyze a sequence of past events; and objectively determine the patterns of cause and what, if any, effect results.

Given that definition of history, this work by Bacevich, is history delivered par excellence.

Actually, this is not a book, but rather a course of study in which each chapter/or lecture depicts an undertaking by the United States to control disparate factors making up the political life of the Middle East. The telling is very well structured and it is exciting to revisit all that history from overthrowing the Iranian democracy in the 1950, to the oil embargos, to the anti-western bombings, and to the ongoing wars and the mistakes of Carter, Reagan, Clinton, Busch and Obama, in attempting to control what was not understood and perhaps not understandable.

More important though it is a look into the psyche of this nation (U.S.) and what it (and its leaders) were looking to obtain and whether their objective (when we were fortunate enough to have a leader that even considered what the objective might be that he/she was trying to achieve) might be and why they thought their chosen course of action would achieve that goal. According to Bacevich, the U.S. and its allies have never secured any of these goals.

The author, I believe has a certain social justice perspective which appears in most of the compilations. The author often notes the injustice heaped upon the lower classes by the upper classes, whether it be this nation against its poor or the Islamic tyrannies against their peoples. His arguments ring out from either the U.S. Progressive Left or the French economist, Thomas Piketty’s One Percent findings. In short, those with the wealth get the riches, while those in need are handed a raw deal. So, if you do not believe in the benefit of wealth redistribution as a benefit to society you may be frustrated in that the author cares for humanity. The injustices though are carefully demonstrated and explained.

Highly Recommended.

Excellent Context for Our (U.S.) Foreign Policy

More than anything else, this book helps to connect the various U.S. interventions in the Greater Middle East to their context. It is an important read for Americans who want to understand our current foreign policy.

AMERICAN TRUTH & INEPTITUDE

To put it mildly, this is a difficult audio book to listen to. It rings with historic truth while revealing American ineptitude. Written by a military historian who retired as a Colonel, served in Vietnam and the Persian Gulf and, tragically, lost a son in Iraq in 2007. Bacevich implies that America’s wars, since WWII, have been failures. (Though he does not mention Korea, one presumes a temporary peace at the 38th parallel is included.)

Bacevich’s latest book focuses on war in the Middle East; a war of attrition and guerrilla warfare that reminds one of Vietnam. America clearly did not win in Vietnam and is facing a similar loss in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and Syria. To Bacevich, post WWII’ wars are the result of failures of diplomacy, military strategy, and military/civilian intelligence. Bacevich suggests America is in a “no-win” position in the Middle East because of misunderstanding of real-politic and fundamentalist beliefs that fracture nation-state comity.

It may be dis-proportionally unjust for other governments to be other than democratic but who are we to judge or dictate to another sovereign country? America fought its own war to become a democratic republic. It is not perfect, but most Americans want to live in their own country. Diplomacy is Bacevich’s implied solution. One presumes Bacevich is not implying America should become isolationist. He suggests America needs diplomacy, founded on cultural understanding of other nations; not war, to get what the U.S. needs to prosper.

As countries mature, the common needs of humankind become more evident. Like a child growing up, countries grow into adulthood. Some will die in the process; many mistakes will be made, but most will grow into maturity based on their own traditions and adopted foreign influences.

Democracy works for America. American democracy does not work for everyone. Countries need to work with each other based on maturity; not infant tantrum. As nations mature, rages will continue to occur because of internal strife. However, Bacevich infers international diplomacy is a better alternative to war for survival of the species.

Certainly a New Viewpoint

This book surely tested my view of the wars in the Middle East. Worthwhile listening.

An accurate, long-awaited summary

An accurate and long-awaited summary of US policy and actions in the Greater Middle East

Well written and researched, but a lot of criticisms without offering his own solutions.

Very good and interesting book to listen to, and well researched. However, a major flaw is he points out policy mistakes and analysis from all democratic and republican Presidents from Carter to Obama, without providing what they should have done instead. He offers a lot of criticism, but no solutions or other viable options. But is still a well written and researched book that I enjoyed, but found a little wanting on lack of the correct solutions to the foreign policy decisions regarding the Middle East.

Fantastic work well worth listening

It is an insightful, accurate display of history. I applaud the extensive and thoughtful attention to detail without placing a bias on the subject.

Great Historical Tie-in

It provided a great historical tie-in as it relates to US Mil activities and involvement in the middle east. Author is able to explain connection of events and rational for action within a greater political context in an easy to digest way.

Nice balance of history and analysis

Much more analysis than Bulger's Why We Lost, with evaluations of the assumptions and practices that keep leading America's national security industry into failures in the Middle East.