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With the continuing U.S. occupation of Iraq, a special task force of scholars and policy experts calls into question the Bush administration's intention to stay as long as necessary. In this joint statement, the members argue that the presence of troops in Iraq distracts attention from fighting Al Qaeda and emboldens a new class of terrorists to take up arms against the United States. The task force's findings are essential reading for anyone concerned with the ongoing conflict and the war on terrorism

While extensively footnoted, the book's argument is too often based on newspaper articles of questionable accuracy. Unnamed intelligence sources, too, can play politics. For example, the authors draw information from both Knight-Ridder and The Guardian, whose correspondents have repeatedly drawn their Iraq reporting from two former government officials, one associated with the Lyndon LaRouche movement and the other listed as a foreign agent working for a Lebanese politician.
The authors' argument that U.S. commitment in Iraq distracts from combating WMD proliferation in countries such as Iran, Libya, North Korea, and Saudi Arabia bears consideration. However, if the entire U.S. national security apparatus is unable to focus on more than one threat simultaneously, then this raises serious questions (left unaddressed) about the country's defenses. - Michael Rubin, Middle East Quarterly, Fall 2004

Christopher A. Preble

Cristopher A. Preble is the vice president for defense and foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute. He is the author of three books including The Power Problem: How American Military Dominance Makes Us Less Safe, Less Prosperous and Less Free (Cornell University Press, 2009); and John F. Kennedy and the Missile Gap (Northern Illinois University Press, 2004); and he co-edited, with John Mueller, A Dangerous World? Threat Perception and U.S. National Security (Cato Institute, 2014); and, with Jim Harper and Benjamin Friedman, Terrorizing Ourselves: Why U.S. Counterterrorism Policy Is Failing and How to Fix It (Cato Institute, 2010). Preble has also published articles in major publications including the New York Times, USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, the Financial Times, National Review, The National Interest, and Foreign Policy, and is a frequent guest on television and radio. In addition to his work at Cato, Preble teaches the U.S. Foreign Policy elective at the University of California, Washington Center (UCDC). Before joining Cato in February 2003, he taught history at St. Cloud State University and Temple University. Preble was a commissioned officer in the U.S. Navy, and served onboard USS Ticonderoga (CG-47) from 1990 to 1993. Preble holds a Ph.D. in history from Temple University.