A War on Terror Afghanistan and After by Paul Rogers (London and Sterling, VA: Pluto Press, 2004. 210 pages.)

Abstract

If you have never read a Paul Rogers’ article or book before, you will probably
be wondering who he is and from what angle he is approaching the
“war on terror.” Paul Rogers is a professor of peace studies, as well as an
international security correspondent who focuses upon trends in international
conflict. More specifically, he examines western military responses
to regional conflicts and political violence. It is with this intellectual background
that he intends to analyze and understand what is happening in the
Middle East (as events occur vis-à-vis “real time”) and predict future implications
of Bush’s “war on terror” (p. 2).
This book is a compilation of articles that Rogers wrote from October
2001 to December 2002 as weekly columns for the Open Democracy web
journal (www.openDemocracy.net). His choice to submit these articles to
the web journal, which is neither media-controlled nor affiliated with any
special interest group, is a provocative statement that clarifies his position
on the media’s “war on terror.” That is, in the author’s words, “media manipulation
is easy” (p. 10) and comes “with little or no critical analysis” (p. 15).
After editing and refining his articles to prepare them for book form,
Rogers divides the articles into seven chapters: Chapter 1: “War in
Afghanistan – I,” Chapter 2: “War in Afghanistan – II,” Chapter 3: “A New
American Century?,” Chapter 4: “Consequences of War,” Chapter 5: “Israel
and Palestine,” Chapter 6: “Winning or Losing?,” and Chapter 7: “Endless
War.” He opens the book with a very brief “Introduction” and ends it with a
slightly longer “Afterword.”
With a closer look, it becomes evident from the chapter titles that
underneath the motif of conflict several interrelated issues are presented
throughout this book: the Bush administration’s (strike first) political ...