America's Secret War

"America's Secret War: Inside the Hidden Worldwide Struggle Between America and Its Enemies", a book by Stratfor founder George Friedman, is an attempt to analyze United States foreign policy in 2004; specifically, the war efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the war on terror.

"America's Secret War" was published as a 368-page hardcover by Doubleday in October 2004 (ISBN 0-385-51245-7). Blackstone Audiobooks released unabridged recordings of the book on cassette (ISBN 0-7861-2893-3), CD (ISBN 0-7861-8283-0), and MP3 CD (ISBN 0-7861-8322-5) in December, 2004. Broadway Books published a 384-page paperback (ISBN 0-7679-1785-5).

Publisher comments on book contents

#Al Qaeda’s war plans and how they led to 9/11
#The threat of a suitcase nuclear bomb in New York and how that changed the course of the war.
#The deal the U.S. made with Russia and Iran which made the invasion of Afghanistan possible — and how those deals affect the United States today.
#How fear and suspicion of the Saudis after 9-11 tore apart the Bush-Saudi relationship and why Saudi Arabia’s closest friends in the administration became the Saudi’s worst enemies.
#The real reasons behind George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq and how WMDs became the cover for a much deeper game.
#How the CIA miscalculated about Saddam Hussein’s and Iran’s real plans, leaving the U.S. bogged down in the war.
#How the war in Iraq began with a ruse, pretending that a “target of opportunity” attack on Saddam Hussein had presented itself.
#The real story about why the U.S. raises and lowers its alert status and why the United States can’t find and destroy al Qaeda.
#The strategic successes that are slowly leading the United States to victory [http://www.edunow.com/0385512457.shtml] [http://www.americassecretwar.com/about_book_overview.html]

Contents

*Preface
*Prologue
#The Origins of the Fourth Global War
#Al Qaeda's Strategy and Operational Principles
#American Strategy and the Rule of Unintended Consequences
#The Anatomy of Intelligence Failures
#The American Way of War-Planning for Everything Except What Happened
#September 11
#Defending the Homeland: Crisis and Irrelevance
#Preparing for a Counterattack
#The War in Afghanistan
#Tora Bora and Nuclear Nightmares
#Searching for a Strategy: Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Iraq
#The Iraq Campaign
#The Great Reversal:Conclusion: War in the Balance
*Index

Independent reviews

"As for Iraq, the author points out seven enormous errors on the part of American foreign policy: the failure to comprehend that Ahmed Chalabi was actually an Iranian agent: relying on Chalabi's misleading evidence pertaining to Iraq's WMDs: not being aware of how well organized the Shiites in Iraq had been-thanks to the Iranians: the failure to understand that Saddam Hussein had a war plan following the fall of Baghdad: failing to understand that the war in Iraq would not end with the fall of Baghdad: not admitting for several months after the war that there was an organized resistance in Iraq: not having sufficient troops the U.S. Army could deploy. As mentioned, "for the first time in American history, the United States attempted to fight a global war with a force no larger than the peacetime cadre it began with." [http://thebestreviews.com/review24775 The Best Reviews]

"George Bush invaded Iraq, not to rid the world of a tyrant with weapons of mass destruction or to showcase democracy in the heart of the Middle East, but to force the Saudis' hand in the Global War on Terror. Moreover, the U.S. is already planning an invasion of northwestern Pakistan because that nation represents the "end game" in the war against Islamic extremism. How do we know? Because George Friedman says so." [http://www.military.com/NewContent/0,13190,011105_Secret_War,00.html Review by Tom Miller]

"... Friedman’s stock-taking exercise is compelling as a distillation of corporate intelligence, where the spin is less about maintaining the image of particular politicians or governments, and more about being right so that money can be made." —"Publishers Weekly"

First two paragraphs of preface

"The war that began on September 11, 2001, might be called the Fourth Global War, the U.S.-Jihadist War, the U.S.-Al Qaeda War, or the U.S.-Islamist War. Some would argue that it isn’t a war at all but an isolated act of terrorism that has been manufactured into a war. Nothing tells us more about the extraordinarily ambiguous and divisive nature of the war than the fact that three years into it, we do not even have a name for it.

This book is called "America’s Secret War" not only because so much of the war is hidden. It is the nature of war that each side must hide as much as can be hidden. The secrecy of this war goes deeper. More than in any other war I have studied, the true reasons for each side’s actions are hidden from view. If I look at the war through the lens of public discourse, nothing makes very much sense. Actions seem unconnected to one another, leading nowhere, lacking meaning. In the words of Macbeth, it is "a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." [http://www.randomhouse.com/doubleday/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=0385512457&view=excerpt US online bookstore]

Errata

Broadway Books published a 384-page paperback (ISBN 0-7679-1785-5)in Chapter 6 'September 11', section 'The Assault': Mistaken referencesto which airliners struck which of the World Trade Center towers. Thebook refers to American 11 hitting the south tower at 8:46 am. and that United 175 hit the north tower at 9:02 am. This is incorrect. The northtower was struck first, by American 11, followed 16 minutes later by the south tower being struck by United 175.

External links and references

* [http://www.americassecretwar.com/ "America's Secret War" official website]
* [http://www.americassecretwar.com/about_book_finalchapter.html Last chapter to "America's Secret War"]
* [http://www.politicos.co.uk/item.jsp?ID=4959 UK on line bookstore] Pages:368 ISBN 0-316-72862-4