Book promotion

Pittsburgh's City Paper ran a nice review of Hitting First: Preventive Force in U.S. Security Strategy in the July 20 edition. Here's what Chris Potter wrote about my contribution:

Administration critics will enjoy seeing contributors like Rodger A. Payne replay flawed administration claims about Iraqi WMD. In light of current events, its almost amusing to be reminded of Cheney’s pre-war claims that Iraq “has been absolutely devoted to trying to acquire nuclear weapons” and that it “has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons.” Intelligence agencies played along. Payne notes that in 2001, the government’s National Intelligence Estimate surmised that “Iraq did not appear to have reconstituted its nuclear weapons program.” A year later, however, the estimate began warning that Iraq “began reconstituting its nuclear program shortly after the departure of [weapons] inspectors in December 1998.”

The article includes interviews with editors Gordon Mitchell and Bill Keller. Potter also talked to a couple of the other local contributors and to Michael Glennon of Tufts and Ivo Daalder of Brookings.

Those latter two guys are made men in the American foreign policy mafia -- CFR members with past and present connections to U.S. policy -- Congress, the NSC, and State.

Maybe that means the book will get some traction this fall.

Note: the book's table of contents are here. That's a pdf from the press. Chapter 1 by the editors has also been posted, "Preemption, Prevention, Prevarication."


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