Mr. Bush's War : Adventures in the Politics of Illusion

This book probes the question of whether any good can come out of the Gulf War. Citing as a model John Maynard Keynes's "The Economic Consequences of the Peace" written shortly after the Treaty of Versailles, in haste and anger, Stephen Graubard shows how the Gulf War illuminates the American political scene. It is the story of a war that has enthralled the American nation and chastened the world, revealing conditions many would have preferred to ignore. It also shows how Bush and his advisers deliberately sought to emulate Margaret Thatcher's political success in the Falklands, using war as a way of increasing the Republicans' popularity. "Mr Bush's War" asks whether military triumph in war can become a force for peace in a world riven by nationalist, religious and economic discontents.