D Liam OHuallachain - Neo-Conned! Again: Hypocrisy, Lawlessness, and the Rape of Iraq

Deconstructs the war on Iraq as part of the neocon blueprint for consolidating the American Empire.

Marjorie Cohn, J.D.
Professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law; Executive
Vice President of the National Lawyers Guild; and U.S.
representative to the executive committee of the American
Association of Jurists

Much more than just a critique of the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq, this volume effectively dissects broad aspects of U.S. foreign policy both of the current Bush Administration and those administrations that preceded it. Contributions by academics and political figures, by former military and other U.S. security personnel and others document the increasingly imperial thrust of U.S. policy and the corrupting influence of that policy from Abu Ghraib in Iraq to the corruption of the media. The overall message of the book, however, goes beyond a concern about U.S. foreign and security policy. It also raises the fundamental question of the possibility of maintaining democratic institutions in the United States itself in the face of the lying, misrepresenting, and fear-mongering that has characterized U.S. policy.

Roger E. Kanet, Ph.D.
Professor of Political Science and Political Developments in
Central & Eastern Europe, University of Miami

In the wake of re-election the Bush administration is busy rewriting history to suggest that any problems connected with the Iraq war are unavoidable by-products of U.S. willingness to employ its limited resources in the service of freeing an oppressed people and ridding the world of terrorism. The publication of Neo-CONNED! and Neo-CONNED! Again is perfectly timed to arrest this attempt to transform moral blindness and strategic incompetence into a fable of excessive self-sacrifice. This remarkable two-volume collection of essays and interviews provides the most comprehensive coverage of the war and its aftermath available anywhere. These books make it abidingly clear that divorcing power from accountability is an invitation to tragedy.

George W. Downs, Ph.D.
Dean of Social Science and Professor of Politics, New York
University

Neo-CONNED! Again has appeared not a moment too soon. The Bush administration has become ever bolder in its efforts to invent a depraved and hostile world that needs liberation. It succeeds in its deceptions and cover-ups to the American people about the war in Iraq because contrary voices are silent, intimidated, or out-shouted. The superb essays in Neo-CONNED! Again by a stellar cast of scholars and policy intellectuals can help turn the tide against the Bush administration's crusade to help make the world safe for freedom.

Lloyd Rudolph, Ph.D.
Professor of Political Science Emeritus, University of Chicago

Neo-CONNED! Again contains many arguments against the war in Iraq, including that it has caused needless suffering and that it has worsened, not reduced, threats to U.S. and international security. Contributors include theologians, reporters, lawyers, military and intelligence personnel, and diplomats. Their aim is to frighten us awake, and they succeed.

Jessica Stern, Ph.D.
John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard
University; Lecturer in Public Policy with the Belfer Center
for Science and International Affairs; and author of Terror in
the Name of God

The contrast between the richness and depth of these discussions and the coverage given to the Iraq war debate in our leading national media is especially striking.

Hayward R. Alker, Ph.D.
John A. McCone Professor of International Relations,
University of Southern California

Neo-CONNED! Again is an important collection of articles converging from all over the political spectrum. Collectively they make a powerful case that neoconservative delusions of world domination are bad for Iraq, bad for Israel, bad for peace and prosperity, bad for our secular ideals and institutions, bad for the basic spiritual principles of love and justice, and therefore bad for America. It is particularly effective in undermining the immoral arguments they and their supporters have made justifying our violent and deadly intrusion into the lives of so many who have never done anything to harm us.

Gus diZerega, Ph.D.
Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Government,
St. Lawrence University

Thank goodness somebody has the courage to publish such a collection of intelligent and truly patriotic condemnations of the insanity of the United States' criminal onslaught against Iraq. From the criminality of the onslaught itself, may as many minds as possible be further opened to the wickedness of the global plan behind it: the agents of the Antichrist are instrumentalizing the United States of America!

Richard Williamson
Catholic Bishop and Director, Seminario Nuestra Seora,
Corredentora, Argentina

Neo-CONNED! Again looks behind the mask of lies and propaganda to reveal to Americans a clearer picture of what has truly gone on in befuddled and invasive Iraqi wars.

Mgr. Raymond Ruscitto
Catholic Priest, Kingsburg, CA

These two volumes, this compendium, is of enormous value, indispensable. No Catholic school, college or university library should be without it, nor anyone engaged in teaching the traditional Catholic faith and its doctrines on justice and peace. They bring together sound theology and trustworthy observation of fact from many sources not usually found in Catholic publications, like Naomi Klein, Robert Fisk, Noam Chomsky, and Michael Ratner. When the Catholic Church in the U.S. catches up with the worldwide Church, Light in the Darkness Publications will deserve an important share of the credit.

Tom Cornell
Editor, The Catholic Worker

An incisive series of critical interventions into the dreadfully misguided conflict in Iraq.

Simon Critchley, Ph.D.
Professor of Philosophy, Department of the Graduate Faculty,
New School Universiity

In the two volumes of Neo-CONNED!, editors Sharpe and O'Huallachain have pulled off a tour de force: they have brought together a dazzling compilation of essays and essayists in which the whole is actually greater than the sum of the parts. The first volume, Just War Principles: A Condemnation of War in Iraq, provides a thoughtful assessment of the U.S. invasion of Iraq by eminent scholars and practitioners of religion, philosophy, and ethics. With authors drawn from all parts of the political map, this volume explores the 'just war' tradition and its interpretation and application in the case of Iraq. The second volume, Hypocrisy, Lawlessness, and the Rape of Iraq, looks at the war in Iraq from myriad political viewpoints, including but not limited to the clash between modern international law and outdated policies of empire, the role of economics, the military campaign, the intelligence failures, and the question of how to meet the new danger of terrorism. Combined, the two volumes provide food for the mind, the heart, the soul, and the day-to-day political activity of any responsible citizen. A must-read for just about everyone educators and academics, journalists and political wonks, and people of faith.

Randall Caroline Forsberg, Ph.D.
Director, Institute for Defense and Disarmament Studies
(idds.org), specialist on alternative security policies, former
adviser to Presidents Bush (41) and Clinton, and co-founder
of the Nuclear Weapon Freeze Campaign

This fascinating two-volume work presents a comprehensive, highly informative critique of the background and motivation of the U.S.-sponsored war on Iraq. The coverage is broad, ranging from detailed refutation of the administration's rationale for war, to evaluation of the war from a just war perspective, to reactions from military participants and intelligence specialists, and to an evaluation of the influence of Leo Strauss,