A Matter of Principle: Humanitarian Arguments for War in Iraq
, . . Univ. of California, $55 (372pp) ISBN 978-0-520-24555-6
Before the U.S. and its allies invaded Iraq in 2003, there were writers and thinkers who distrusted Bush but favored the war largely on human rights grounds: members of that contingent recall, defend and re-examine their arguments in this meaty, provocative, if often academic, collection. "Had there been no war," editor Cushman (a professor of sociology at Wellesley) points out, "Saddam Hussein would still be... torturing and killing." Many contributors make that claim their bottom line. Several explain why they thought the war just in principle, without defending it in practice: "If I knew in spring 2003 what I know now," says the historian Jeffrey Herf, "I would not have supported the invasion." Other writers do not so much defend the war as attack glib arguments against it:
Reviewed on: 06/13/2005
Genre: Nonfiction
Hardcover - 384 pages - 978-0-520-24486-3
Open Ebook - 978-0-520-90189-6
Open Ebook - 384 pages - 978-0-520-93216-6