Now available in paperback, this sweeping and authoritative narrative is essential reading in the study of the conflict in Iraq that has plagued the first decade of the 20th century. A unique and thorough study, it places the Iraq War in the context of US foreign policy since Vietnam, casting the conflict as a chapter in a much broader story of US and allied forces' diplomatic and military moves in the region. In a disturbing account, Gardner shows how the Iraq War is a necessary outcome of doomed US policies.