Based on interviews conducted during the war with those who fled bombing as well as subsequent research and analysis, this challenges the report of allied commanders that they took every feasible step to avoid civilian death and injury. It also examines Iraqi attacks on Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Ideal for high school and college-level readers as well as students attending military academies and general audiences, this encyclopedia covers the details of the Persian Gulf War as well as the long-term consequences and historical lessons learned from this important 20th-century conflict. This encyclopedia provides a rich historical account of the Persian Gulf War, examining the conflict from a holistic perspective that addresses the details of the military operations as well as the social, political, economic, and cultural aspects of the war. The alphabetically arranged entries chart the events of the war, provide cross references and sources for additional study, and identify the most important individuals and groups associated with the conflict. In addition, it includes primary source documents that will provide readers with valuable insights and foster their critical thinking and historical reasoning skills. The Persian Gulf War served as the first live-combat test of much of the United States' then-new high-tech weaponry. The war also held many lessons about the play of national interests, the process of coalition building, the need for effective communication and coordination, and the role of individuals in shaping history. This book addresses all key battles, the nations involved, strategies employed by both sides, weapon systems used, the role of the media, the role played by women, and environmental and medical issues associated with the conflict.

Why do states who are committed to the principle of civilian immunity and the protection of non-combatants end up killing and injuring large numbers of civilians during their military operations? Bugsplat explains this paradox through an in-depth examination of five conflicts fought by Western powers since 1989. It argues that despite the efforts of Western military organizations to comply with the laws of armed conflict, the level of collateral damage produced by Western military operations is the inevitable outcome of the strategies and methods through which their military organizations fight wars. Drawing on their superior technology and the strategic advantage of not having to fight on their own territory, such states employ highly-concentrated and overwhelming military force against a wide variety of political, economic, and military targets under conditions likely to produce high civilian casualties. As a result, collateral damage in western-fought wars is largely both foreseeable and preventable. The book title is derived from the name of a computer program that had been used by the Pentagon to calculate probable civilian casualties prior to launching air attacks.

An account of war ethics sensitive to the historical just war theory, informed by the contemporary concerns of war.

Has truth become a casualty of America’s increasingly caustic and volatile political culture? Truth in the Public Sphere seeks to understand the significance of truth for the everyday world of human communication. To this end, this book explores the place of truth in several facets of the public sphere: language, ethics, journalism, politics, media, and art. Featuring an international group of contributors from across the humanities and social sciences, this collection is a definitive supplement to theoretical debates about the meaning and status of truth.

Imposing sanctions on Iraq was one of the most heinous of crimes committed in the 20th century. Yet it has received little attention in the Anglo-American world. Despite the calamitous destruction resulting from the sanctions, no serious attempts by legal professionals, academics or philosophers have been undertaken to address the full scope of the immorality and illegality of such a criminal and unprecedented mass punishment. Genocide in Iraq offers a comprehensive coverage of Iraq’s politics, its building, its destruction through aggression and sanctions, and an analysis of the legality of these sanctions from the point of view of international laws and human rights laws. It presents a detailed policy analysis indicating how, under Ba’ath rule, Iraq had risen to become-be fore 12 years of total sanctions were globally enforced-the most progressive and developed Arab nation in the Middle East. It then contrasts that rising nation to the devastated remains left in the aftermath of sanctions, which nonetheless was yet to endure, in 2003, the full force of the American “shock and awe” invasion. The book explains why, in modern times, imperialist powers felt it was necessary to occupy Baghdad. It also puts forward the uniqueness of Iraq as at the heart of both Sunni and Shi’a theology, arguing it was this very centrality of Iraq, which far outweighs the significance of Arabia in socio-economic, religious and geostrategic dimensions, that at the same time makes Iraq a target. It details the building of Iraq by the Ba’ath regime, part of which was done with remarkable speed, putting to rest the argument that other countries in the area were developed at a similar pace. It also details the devastation of Iraq by 2003 after 12 years of sanctions-a devastation so dreadful that by the UN’s own accounting, some 500,000 child deaths were due to it; a devastation so pervasive and overwhelming that two of the UN’s own key administrators of the sanctions program, Dennis Halliday and Hans von Sponeck, resigned in protest.