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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Ina Howard
Publication Date: May 15, 2006 Phone: 212-564-4406
Email: ihoward@thenewpress.com

IRAQ: THE LOGIC OF WITHDRAWAL
BY ANTHONY ARNOVE
INTRODUCTION BY HOWARD ZINN

This is the case the U.S. public needs to have and understand urgently if for no other reason than to end the killing of innocent Iraqis and American kids in uniform.
-Denis Halliday, former UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq

Three years after the start of the war in Iraq, violence and misery continue to plague the country, and conservatives and liberals alike are struggling with the question of when-and under what circumstances-U.S. and coalition forces should leave. In this cogent and compelling book, Anthony Arnove argues that the U.S. occupation is the major source of instability and suffering for the Iraqi people. He shows why continuing the occupation is both a wildly unrealistic and reckless strategy, one that is making the world a more dangerous place.

Nearly forty years ago, historian, activist, and bestselling author Howard Zinn-whose foreword and afterword frame Arnove’s book-published Vietnam: The Logic of Withdrawal, which argued with remarkable foresight that getting out of Vietnam was the only realistic option. IRAQ: THE LOGIC OF WITHDRAWAL will likely prove equally prescient.

About the author:
Anthony Arnove is the editor of Iraq Under Siege and co-editor, with Howard Zinn, of Voices of a People’s History of the United States. His writing has appeared in the Financial Times, The Nation, Mother Jones, Monthly Review, Le Nouvel Observateur, Z Magazine, and other publications. He lives in Brooklyn, New York. Howard Zinn is a professor emeritus at Boston University. He is the author of numerous books, including A People’s History of the United States.

IRAQ: THE LOGIC OF WITHDRAWAL
Anthony Arnove
Introduction by Howard Zinn
The New Press / May 15, 2006
Hardcover / $19.95 / 208 pages
ISBN: 978-1-59558-079-5

Advance Praise for Iraq: The Logic of Withdrawal

“Iraq: The Logic of Withdrawal is an urgent book, a complete manual for those who wish to resist the occupation. I hope it becomes an effective tool in the hands of those who have the guts to stand up and be counted.”
-Arundhati Roy, author, The God of Small Things

“Anthony Arnove’s analysis of the reasons for U.S. troops to be withdrawn from Iraq is brilliant. As someone whose life has been tragically altered forever by the murder of my son, Casey, by the arrogant and failed U.S. foreign policy in Iraq, my analysis is much simpler, but echoes Arnove’s: this war is based on lies, deceptions, and calumny by the U.S. and coalition governments. Not one American, coalition soldier, or innocent Iraqi should be dead for the hubris and callousness of our misleaders. It is not brain surgery: bring our troops home now. Iraq: The Logic of Withdrawal is an important and convincing addition to the withdrawal dialogue. It is also an important tool to make sure that our foreign policy is changed to prevent such tragedies in the future.”
-Cindy Sheehan, Gold Star Families for Peace

“A powerful and compelling argument on behalf of withdrawal from Iraq. An important book that every American should read!”
-Ron Kovic, Vietnam veteran and author, Born on the Fourth of July

“Any U.S. service member willing to kill or be killed in Iraq should read Anthony Arnove’s Iraq: The Logic of Withdrawal. While offering a historical analysis of imperial intervention, the book is an easy-to-read, uncorrupted account of the events that led to the criminal U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq and of why it only makes sense to withdraw all foreign troops from there immediately.”
-Camilo Mejía, GI resister, conscientious objector, Iraq war veteran

“How can the military occupation of Iraq that resulted from an illegal and immoral invasion bring anything but more hatred, chaos, and death? As thousands of lives continue to be lost, as more of Iraq is devoured by U.S. corporations, as the sovereignty of the Iraqi people is undermined daily, and the rights and safety of Iraqi women are destroyed, Anthony Arnove makes a impassioned, unflinching case for immediate U.S. withdrawal. Read this book and bring the troops home now.”
-Eve Ensler, author and playwright, V-Day

“Arnove systematically makes the case for complete and immediate withdrawal from Iraq. True, by now we know much of the terrible story. We know about the lies, the incompetence, the greed and the brutality that accompanied war. But Arnove puts all this together in a compelling, even relentless, brief against America’s new imperial venture.”
-Frances Fox Piven, Distinguished Professor of Sociology,
City University of New York

“Anthony Arnove has written a book that every American, regardless of political viewpoint, should read. It brings historical awareness, evidence, and reason to bear in mounting an overwhelmingly persuasive and lucid argument for an immediate American withdrawal from Iraq. Heeding Arnove’s assessment would create the possibility of an American political renewal. Ignoring it, as the mainstream seems stubbornly determined to do, is to open wide a gateway to disaster.”
-Richard Falk, Professor Emeritus of International Law and Practice at Princeton University and Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara

“A compelling and courageous call to do the only right thing: bring the troops home now!”
-Mike Davis, author and historian, University of California at Irvine

“It is the occupation of Iraq that has created the savage chaos. A withdrawal of all Western troops is a prerequisite of self-determination. Anthony Arnove’s arguments are persuasive and his logic undeniable.”
-Tariq Ali, author, Bush in Babylon

“The hidden obstacle to U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam was liberal America’s resistance to the notion of a deliberately rapacious act of invasion, preferring the lie of the bungling giant being drawn into a ‘quagmire.’ The same is true of Iraq today, which makes this insightful book a must read for those who believe the truth matters.”
-John Pilger, film maker and author, The New Rulers of the World

“It is not enough to read Iraq: The Logic of Withdrawal. You must stuff it down the throat of the senators and congressmen who voted for this illegal war until they digest its arguments and end the war.”
-Charles Glass, former ABC News Chief Middle East Correspondent, and author of Tribes with Flags

“Arnove accurately and eloquently dispels the myths of U.S. benevolence and victory in Iraq. His assessment of the situation on the ground is as accurate and gripping as any I’ve seen, while providing a searing testimony about the total failure of the illegal invasion and occupation and why the only true solution is a full and immediate U.S. withdrawal.”
-Dahr Jamail, independent journalist

“The war in Iraq was a criminal one and a disastrous mistake. Yet, worse than that, it was unsurprising, belonging to a train of thought that has dominated certain Western policies for a century or more. This furious book reveals how and why this is so. Essential reading.”
-John Berger, author

“Anthony Arnove’s Iraq: The Logic of Withdrawal is timely and is urgently needed. As the demand grows for immediate withdrawal, this cogently argued text will help popular pressure rise to the point that it cannot be ignored.”
-Dennis Brutus, poet, author, Poetry and Protest

“There is no exit door? The authors of this serial killing should have, at least, the minimal decency to invent it. ‘And death shall have no dominion. . .’ ”
-Eduardo Galeano, author, The Open Veins of Latin America

“Arnove challenges the absurdity and high human cost of the U.S. war on Iraq in such clear and irrefutable terms in this book. None of the neo-con political magicians or the liberal whiners can challenge his Iraq: The Logic of Withdrawal. Arnove denudes the politics of fear in the service of U.S. imperial gain.”
-Elaine Hagopian, editor, Civil Rights in Peril

“Anthony Arnove’s Iraq: The Logic of Withdrawal is an excellent handbook, displaying in a well-written, easy-to-read form all the key arguments for the immediate, total and unconditional withdrawal of U.S. and allied occupation troops from Iraq. It is a most precious and timely contribution to the building of the antiwar movement. Arnove does not avoid the issues on which there is no consensus within the movement: he discusses them in a stimulating manner, staying aloof from the acrimony that too often characterizes debates among the left.”
-Gilbert Achcar, author, The Clash of Barbarisms

“Iraq: The Logic of Withdrawal strongly and persuasively demonstrates that the immediate termination of the military occupation of Iraq and withdrawal of U.S. forces would not only serve U.S. interests, but Iraqi interest as well. It reveals the manner in which the strategic landscape of the entire region has been reshaped by this imperial war, and it debunks the myth that a withdrawal now would create a vacuum and ignite a civil war, when indeed a civil war is already ongoing as a result of the invasion and occupation. It is a must read for those who want to learn about how the United States is trying to re-colonize the Arab world.”
-Naseer Aruri, author, Dishonest Broker, and Chancellor Professor (Emeritus) of political science at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth

“At a time of liberal-versus-conservative debate in the United States about the Iraq war, and at a time of democratic calls for more occupation troops in Iraq, Arnove presents a most courageous and most humane argument for immediate withdrawal of U.S. occupation troops from Iraq. Unlike most American treatment of the Iraqi situation, Arnove shows concerns for U.S. troops and for the Iraqi people. The plight of the Iraqi people is often ignored in U.S. discussions of war and occupation. Arnove does not present a wishy washy, timid case for end of occupation; he sharply and effectively undermines all arguments for war and for occupation. This is the most convincing case made for the immediate end of U.S. occupation. As the occupation drags, on, Arnove’s call will be remembered as an important warning. All those who care about peace and justice, and all those who want to argue for an immediate end to the war, should read this book. Unlike most arguments (from liberals and from conservatives) about the war, Arnove argues with the premise of self-determination from the Iraqi people. This book provides a damning case not only against the U.S. government, but also against the dangerous shortcoming of mainstream U.S. media. This book is not only an important analysis of U.S. war and occupation, but it can also serve as a primer for activists around the world.”
-As’ad AbuKhalil, professor of political science at California State University, Stanislaus

“A decade ago, with Bill Clinton in the White House, Arnove helped wake us up to the
horrors of the U.S.-led economic sanctions against Iraq. Today, he is sounding the alarm against the bipartisan myth of benevolent occupation. His is a rare and credible voice of sanity in the most insane of times.”
-Jeremy Scahill, Democracy Now!

“Nothing could be more policy-relevant today than Anthony Arnove’s analysis
in this book.”
-Edward S. Herman, professor emeritus at the Wharton School of Business at the
University of Pennsylvania

“As the global antiwar movement wrestles with the aftermath of the Iraq invasion, Anthony Arnove’s rigorous and well-informed arguments for an immediate withdrawal are timely and necessary. He strips away the dangerous illusions that prop up the notion that the U.S. occupation can in any way benefit the Iraqi people.”
-Mike Marqusee, Iraq Occupation Focus

“Anthony Arnove has the capacity to bring together the views and experience of those aware, involved in Iraq … from the Gulf War, through UN sanctions and more recently U.S. invasion and occupation. His book Iraq Under Siege demonstrates this skill. His various publications, bring into acute focus the critical issues … the genocide of sanctions, the illegal war of aggression driven by Bush, the use of state terrorism, the war crimes and atrocities of the occupation, the discarded human rights of the Iraqi people, the failure of the UN Security Council to meet its mandate of peace and security. To make the case for immediate termination of U.S. aggression and withdrawal of its armed forces from Iraq … no one could better rationally set out the essential elements … than Arnove. This is the case the U.S. public needs to have and understand urgently if for no other reason than to end the killing of innocent Iraqis and ignorant U.S. kids in uniform.”
-Denis Halliday, former director of the United Nations oil-for-food program in Iraq, former assistant UN secretary-general

The war in Iraq is a real war, not a war of rhetoric. And that fact more than anything else is what underpins the logic of U.S. withdrawal. The war is brutal, corrupt, and for all purposes already lost. This book will help Americans get their minds around that reality - the U.S. project in Iraq is hopeless.”
-Christian Parenti, Nation correspondent and author, The Freedom: Shadows and Hallucinations in Occupied Iraq

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Anthony Arnove bio:

Anthony Arnove is the editor, with Howard Zinn, of Voices of a People’s History of the United States, a critically acclaimed primary-source companion to Zinn’s best selling A People’s History of the United States that features the words of rebels, dissenters, and visionaries from our past - and present. Rethinking Schools describes the book a “stunning new volume.” Jon Stewart of The Daily Show calls it “Gut-wrenching.” And Salon.com considers it “Compelling and indispensable.”

The book, published by Seven Stories Press, also has a companion teacher’s guide and curriculum.

Zinn and Arnove have organized public readings from the Voices of a People’s History of the United States that have featured the words of Frederick Douglass, Tecumseh, Emma Goldman, Paul Robeson, Susan B. Anthony, and others. These events have featured Viggo Mortensen, Sandra Oh, James Earl Jones, Marisa Tomei, Kurt Vonnegut, Lili Taylor, Sarah Jones, Wally Shawn, John Sayles, Leslie Silva, Brian Jones, Danny Glover, Alice Walker, Harris Yulin, Josh Brolin, Cindy Corrie, exonerated death row prisoners and their families, and other readers.

He is currently working with Howard Zinn, The Culture Project, and director Rob Urbinati on a stage adaptation of the book.

Arnove’s latest book, to be published in March 2006 by The New Press, is Iraq: The Logic of Withdrawal.

He is also is the editor of Iraq Under Siege: The Deadly Impact of Sanctions and War (South End Press) and Terrorism and War, a collection of post-9/11 interviews with Howard Zinn (Seven Stories Press).

An activist based in Brooklyn, he is a member of the International Socialist Organization and the National Writers Union, and writes regularly for ZNet.

His writing has appeared in The Financial Times, The Nation, Mother Jones, Left Business Observer, Monthly Review, In These Times, International Socialist Review, Red Pepper, Socialist Worker, L’Humanite, Le Nouvel Observateur, Z Magazine, Cineaste, New Politics, and other publications.

He has appeared on BBC, Sky News, Alternative Radio, Democracy Now!, CounterSpin, Air America, and public radio programs across the country, and was featured in the recent documentary Preventive Warriors.

Arnove spoke at the historic February 15, 2003, demonstration in New York City against the planned war in Iraq, and has spoken at numerous demonstrations and conferences, sharing platforms with John Pilger, Noam Chomsky, Arundhati Roy, Howard Zinn, Medea Benjamin, Tariq Ali, Kathy Kelly, Dennis Brutus, and others. He has also spoken at many colleges and universities across the country.

Arnove is on the editorial board of the International Socialist Review and of Haymarket Books.

He traveled to Iraq in 2000 and Palestine and Israel in 2001, and has recently toured France and the United Kingdom as an antiwar speaker.

Arnove worked for seven years as an editor and publisher at South End Press and now is a freelance editor and writer, working with Arundhati Roy, Noam Chomsky, Tariq Ali, John Sayles, David Barsamian, Sonia Shah, and others.

He has also for several years served as a producer of Howard Zinn’s play Marx in Soho, which has been performed internationally under his aegis.

Arnove has a PhD and MA from Brown University, where he studied in the Modern Culture and Media Program, and a BA from Oberlin College, where he studied English and Religion.