Trapped in the War on Terror

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006. First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Good/Very good. xii, [2], 186 pages. Bookplate signed by the author with a sentiment on fep. Notes in ink on rep. Some pencil marks to text noted. Preface, Notes, and Index. The chapters are: The Imperative of Triage; Perceptions of the Terrorist Threat; Measuring the Terrorist Threat: What is the Evidence?; The Cabal, The Invasion of Iraq, and the Origins of the War on Terror; The War on Terror Whirlwind; and Freeing America From the War on Terror. Ian Steven Lustick (born 1949) is an American political scientist and specialist on the modern history and politics of the Middle East. He held the Bess W. Heyman Chair in the department of Political Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. He completed his Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley in 1976 with a dissertation titled Arabs in the Jewish State, later adapted for a book of that title. He spent 1979-1980 as an analyst for the Bureau of Intelligence and Research of the Department of State. He was subsequently a professor at Dartmouth College, where he taught for 15 years. Lustick became more broadly known with the publication of his book Trapped in the War on Terror in which he argues that the War on Terrorism is an irrational policy for fighting America's enemies. He argues that this policy was initially conceived of by a neo-conservative cabal at the Project for a New American Century who were determined to shift the direction of U.S. foreign policy towards unilateralism. Given a number of political features unique to the US system, Lustick concluded, the War on Terror has ultimately turned into something beyond anyone's control. The first principle of terrorism is to understand that the weak win by exploiting the strength of the powerful. When 9/11 terrorists with box cutters hijacked American airliners, they transformed America's preeminent transportation system into a devastating weapon of attack. They also set a trap with the promise of revenge and security as the bait. The hijackers' biggest victory was to goad our government into taking the bait by unleashing the War on Terror. The worry, witch-hunt, and waste that have ensued are, according to Ian S. Lustick, destroying American confidence, undermining our economy, warping our political life, and isolating us from our international allies. The media have given constant attention to possible terrorist-initiated catastrophes and to the failures and weaknesses of the government's response. Trapped in the War on Terror, however, questions the very rationale for the War on Terror. By analyzing the virtual absence of evidence of a terrorist threat inside the United States along with the motives and strategic purposes of al-Qaeda, Lustick shows how disconnected the War on Terror is from the real but remote threat terrorism poses. He explains how the generalized War on Terror began as part of the justification for invading Iraq, but then took on a life of its own. A whirlwind of fear, failure, and recrimination, this "war" drags every interest group and politician, he argues, into selfish competition for its spoils. Facing the threat of nuclear incineration during the Cold War, America overcame panic about nonexistent communist sleeper cells poised to destroy the country, a panic fueled by the destructive hysteria of McCarthyism. Through careful analysis of the Soviet threat, the nation managed to sustain a productive national life and achieve victory, despite the terrifying daily possibility of catastrophe. This book is inspired by that success. It points the way forward, not toward victory in the War on Terror but to victory over it. The first and most difficult step toward that victory is to know the enemy. In large measure, as Trapped in the War on Terror shows, that means understanding how al-Qaeda is making us our own worst enemy.