Fear, Anger and Failure

I first came across William Pfaff when I picked up a second hand copy of "Power and Impotence: The Failure of America's Foreign Policy". It was written nearly 40 years ago by Pfaff (with Edmund Stillman) and describes the psycho-historical underpinnings of America's interventionist foreign policy with a clarity and prescience that today seems downright spooky (Iraq can be seen as simply the latest in a long line of manifestations of the futility of this policy). William Pfaff has been writing a column for the International Herald Tribune since the 70's. "Fear, Anger and Failure" is a collection of his IHT columns from September 2001 to December 2003. In it he prophetically chronicles the inevitability of the invasion of Iraq in response to the September 11 attacks. Pfaff cuts through the rhetoric (a "War Against Terror" or a "War Against Evil" can, by definition, never be won) to the core beliefs that drive the misguided attempts to export to the rest of the world what is in fact a uniquely American experience. It is brilliantly written, drily observant and almost always objective (only occasionally does he show disdain for the ignorance behind the US Administration's messianic policies in the Middle East). Pfaff, who writes from Paris, also gives a perspective on the often misunderstood, and misrepresented, European position. His opinions ring true. Read this book and wonder whether its message will ever be heard, let alone heeded, in Washington.