Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)"Howard's War" is the type of book read by only four groups of people. First, reviewers who have to read it. Second, close family members of the author. Third, those who simply want their existing political prejudices massaged to climax. And the final group are those who read such intellectual cowardice and tripe to keep their disgust fresh (include this reviewer in that number just in case there's any doubt).
The author, Alison Broinowski, is a retired diplomat (as an aside, how do these people get selected for such jobs....) and former academic who incidentally used to lecture as a guest speaker at the Australian Army's Command and Staff College - at the end of the course each year, three academics or prominent commentators would be invited to provide their perspectives on Australia's future from the left, centre and right of the political spectrum respectively. Broinowski spoke for the left on a number of occasions. Broinowski's polemic (that's all you can really call this), "Howard's War", reinforces the dogmatic and one-sided views she has long expressed. Parts of the book make some attempt at academic-style rigour but these sections are few and far between and are invariably marred by the general tone of shrill and unleavened condemnation, and by its continual deployment of flawed assumptions with no attempt at objectivity or balance.
If you hate John Howard, as most of the Australian left does, or indeed dislike any right of centre Australian politician since World War 2, you will relish this book for its subjectivity, inherent and unremitting bias and it's pandering to your prejudices and weaknesses, both intellectual and moral. The book is based on an underlying and not always unspoken assumption that the USA and its government are always the bad guys, and that Australia's alliance with the USA is both completely wrong strategically and utterly immoral. Her book spews up most of the simplistic and tired old anti-American prejudices common in Australian academic circles since the early 1950s. You really have to wonder whether Broinowski's views have matured since the days of the anti-Vietnam war protests (actually, you don't have to wonder at all - they very obviously haven't). Her polemic offers no real alternative proposals for Australian national security policy. There are some rather more than ephemeral suggestions of appeasement and moral isolationism, especially in her views about accommodating terrorism by Islamic extremists rather than fighting it.
Other Australian critics of John Howard's decision to join the "Coalition of the Willing" over Iraq have mounted reasoned and well though out arguments to support their view. It can be done if an objective effort is made, and while I might personally disagree with that view, I can appreciate the arguments for and against. However, this book sadly failed, in that the author's case lacks any real effort to make a balanced case. Her main argument, that Australia's alliance with the US makes us a target for Islamic terrorists, is simply shallow and reeks of moral cowardice.
All in all, this book's a complete waste of money and a sad waste of paper.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Howard's War (Scribe Short Books)
A concise critique of the justifications used to support Australia's participation in the 2003 war against Iraq is set forth in this work. It inspects Prime Minister John Howard's motivation for entering a war that is contrary to Australia's interests and explores the apparent consequences of this decision on its citizens. Among the topics addressed is how Australia's involvement eliminated a profitable trading partner and ratcheted up the hostilities against Australia among Iraq's Muslim neighbors and in countries that would otherwise have paid little attention. The prime minister's zealous appeasement of Washington and London and his ensuing adoption of U.S. foreign policy are also scrutinized.
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