Review A Time Of Our Choosing, America’s War In Iraq

Purdum, Todd, A Time Of Our Choosing, America’s War In Iraq, New York: Times Books, 2003

 

A Time Of Our Choosing, America’s War In Iraq was a disappointing read. Rather than being informative it showed all the faults of how the U.S. media covered the 2003 invasion. Written by New York Times Washington bureau chief Todd Purdum it largely presented the Bush administration’s argument for the war with no analysis and only a few criticisms and then gave the military’s view of the war. Most importantly it never really explained why the White House decided that Iraq was the number one threat to the country.

 

One of Purdum’s many faults was that he never explained why Washington chose Iraq after 9/11. The book brings up Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz who believed in spreading democracy in the Middle East via Iraq. It said Vice President Dick Cheney thought Saddam Hussein had to be removed as part of a new U.S. attitude towards the world. Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld considered Iraq unfinished business from the Gulf War. The White House also didn’t think that Iraq could ever be trusted and was therefore a threat. Finally, it notes that President Bush believed that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. None of these are satisfactory. Wolfowitz for instance didn’t set policy and never had much access to the president. Saying Saddam was untrustworthy doesn’t explain why Iraq out of all the countries in the world was selected to begin with. Bush was the ultimate decision maker and there is no real discussion of his mindset or beliefs that led him to war. Purdum just begins and ends by describing the administration’s argument with no attempt to analyze it or even dig deep into it. It’s a gaping hole in most American books about Iraq and A Time Of Our Choosing is no exception.

 

The second part of the book on the invasion is no better. It talks about how Rumsfeld wanted to revolutionary warfare by pushing for a small invasion force and rely upon technology to defeat Iraq. That largely worked and the book supports the Defense Secretary’s concept of a new way to conduct war. Purdum notes that Rumsfeld’s ideas meant there were not enough troops to secure Iraq after the invasion was over but then says the U.S. military wasn’t trained for peace keeping so it might not have mattered. Again, Purdum makes a criticism but then in the end supports what the White House did.

 

These are just two big issues amongst many found in A Time of Our Choosing. One of the main jobs of the American media is to report what the White House says and that’s what this book does. Its sources are mainly administration officials who repeat the party line. It’s the same thing when covering the military. Analysis is not really part of reporting and any outside voices are usually drowned out by government ones. The book therefore highlights what’s wrong with journalism in the U.S. and how it failed to inform the public about the decision to invade Iraq.

 

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