How to Lose the War on Terror

Mark Perry author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd

Published:12th Mar '10

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

How to Lose the War on Terror cover

It has long been an article of faith that the United States does not talk to terrorists - that to engage in dialogue with groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Muslim Brotherhood would be tacitly to acknowledge their status as legitimate political actors. Not so, argues Middle East expert Mark Perry. In the absence of dialogue, we have lumped these groups together with Al Qaeda as part of a monolithic enemy defined by a visceral hatred of American values. In reality, while they hold deep grievances about specific US policies, they are ultimately far more defined by their opposition to the deliberately anti-political Salafist ideology of Al Qaeda. Drawing on extensive interviews with Washington insiders, Perry describes fruitful covert meetings between members of the US armed forces and leaders of the Iraqi insurgency to demonstrate that talking to terrorists may be best way to end terrorism - controversial wisdom we ignore at our peril.

In this book, Mark Perry allows us to hear different voices and different language from those whom we have all too easily written off as murderers and terrorists. Perry understands the basic truth that too many of us have forgotten - that there is not one truth, but many. -- Seymour M. Hersh, The New Yorker
Very few westerners understand the Middle East and its politics as well as Mark Perry, and the reason for his insights lie in this book: unlike most diplomats, journalists and academics, he derives his knowledge of organizations such as Hamas, Hezbollah and the Sunni national resistance in Iraq not from second hand sources but close personal contact. Not only has he talked to those generally labelled and dismissed as terrorists, he offers here a clear definition of when such groups are worth talking to, in the sense that doing so may create real opportunities for peace, and when (as in the case of Al Qaeda) they clearly aren t. Beautifully written, this is both a gripping narrative and a piece of compelling advocacy, casting new light on some of the historic catastrophes of the present and recent past. -- David Rose, Vanity Fair
'How to Lose the War on Terror' is a dramatic narrative of the crippling strategic and intellectual mistakes that have mired the West in an unwinnable war. . . . Beautifully written, this is both a gripping narrative which casts new light on some of the historic catastrophes of the present and recent past. * The Muslim World Book Review *

ISBN: 9781850659624

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

256 pages