Fallows, James. Blind into Baghdad; America's war in Iraq.

FALLOWS, James. Blind into Baghdad; America's war in Iraq. Random House, Vintage. 229p. c2006.0-307-27796-8. $13.95. SA

An excellent resource for students doing research on the Iraq War: how the US decided to get into the war; how the administration didn't prepare for the aftermath of the overthrow of Saddam Hussein; how efforts to save the situation have failed so far. Fallows, a well-known journalist and writer for The Atlantic Monthly, compiles five of his articles in this book. The first article, "The Fifty-First State," was published in November of 2002; the fifth article, "Will Iran be Next?" appeared in The Atlantic Monthly in December 2004. The thorough Introduction and Afterword are both essential here, placing the articles in context. Fallows was personally in favor of defeating the Taliban in Afghanistan after the attacks of 9/11, but he felt from the beginning that there was no connection between Iraq and 9/11 and that we were not prepared for the task of rebuilding Iraq after invading it. He is not a blinded ideologue and he carefully describes the thinking of Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz and others who believed conquering Iraq would be easy, and those in the Defense Department and the State Department who understood the Middle East and the dangers of creating a power void in Iraq.

Fallows's articles are marvels of clarity and careful thinking. While his own opinions are clearly expressed, he also considers other viewpoints, which would help students debating the reasons why the US started the war in Iraq and why it is going so badly. Claire Rosser, KLIATT

S--Recommend for senior high school students.

A--Recommend for advanced students and adults. This code will help librarians and teachers working in high schools where there are honors and advanced placement students. This also will help KLIATT's usefulness in public libraries.