The Emperor Has No Clothes

Ian Lustick, Bess M. Heyman Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania, has just published a new book Trapped in the War on Terror (University of Pennsylvania Press).  Lustick was a recent guest on Conversations with History. http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/people6/Lustick/lustick06-con0.html The book is a powerful attack on the logic of U.S. strategy and a compelling account of its consequences for domestic politics. In comparing the War on Terror with the Containment Doctrine of the Cold War, Lustick, drawing on his expertise in Middle East politics. demonstrates that, unlike Kennan's doctrine, Bush's War on Terror lacks a subtle understanding of the nature of our new adversary, the Islamic jihadists. He goes on to explicate how this flawed strategy has corrupted domestic politics.  His insights reminded me of Hans Christian Anderson's fairy tale, "The Emperor Has No Clothes." Read the interview and then go buy the book.