Xark Community Reading List

Let's making a reading list together
Here's an idea: People working together could actually make each other smarter by suggesting useful articles, books, blogs and discussions. This is one of the things we try to do together at Xark!

Here's how this particular experiment will work:

If you've read something you thought was useful on a given topic, create that topic here, provide a link to the material you've read, and write a short description that explains why you're suggesting the material and what someone might get out of reading it.

The AWOL Project (Web site)
The AWOL Project. Summary: A work of citizen investigative journalism into Bush's military record. It is heavy on documentation. -- Dan Conover

Lawrence Wilkerson at New America (Web site)
Col. Lawrence Wilkerson on the Bush Administration's National Security Decision Making Process. New America Foundation. Summary: 1 1/2 hour talk and questions given October 19, 2005. Former Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell from 2002-2005. Views on national security, government reorganization and the Bush Administration's approach to power. Links at bottom of page for audio and pdf. -- Tim Schmoyer.

Fiasco (book)
Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq, by Thomas Ricks. Summary: The best book I've found yet on the overall conduct of the war in Iraq from a military perspective. -- Dan Conover

Lie by Lie (Web site)
Lie by Lie. By Mother Jones magazine. Summary: An interactive online timeline that tracks who said what when in the run-up to the American invasion in March 2003. Searchable. -- Dan Conover.

The Challenge of Opportunity: Rebuilding Iraq, 2003 (pdf)
Case studies in policy making & process / edited by Shawn W. Burns.— 9th ed.. National Security Decision Making Department, Naval War College. Summary: Case studies used to study national security decision making. Recommend scanning the first essay, A Guide to Case Analysis, then read The Challenge of Opportunity: Rebuilding Iraq, 2003.  -- Tim Schmoyer.

The Future of Iraq (Web site)
The Future of Iraq, Hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, also available in pdf at GPO. Summary: February 11, 2003, testimony from Marc Grossman, Undersecretary of State; Doug Feith, Undersecretary of Defense; General Anthony Zinni, Colonel Scott Feil, Professor Gordon Adams and Professor Anthony Cordesman.  -- Tim Schmoyer.

Briefing on Humanitarian Reconstruction Issues (Web site)
Briefing on Humanitarian Reconstruction Issues. Summary: February 24, 2003, White House briefing with Elliott Abrams, Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Near East and North Africa at the National Security Council; Andrew Natsios, Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development; Gene Dewey, Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Population Refugees and Migration; Ron Adams, Deputy Director of the Pentagon Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance; Joe Collins, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Stability Operations; and Robin Cleveland, Associate Director for National Security Programs at the OMB.  -- Tim Schmoyer.

Backgrounder on Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance in Post-War (Web site)
Backgrounder on Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance in Post-War. Summary: March 11, 2003, DoD background briefing on post-war planning.  -- Tim Schmoyer.

Iraq: Reconstruction (Web site)
Iraq: Reconstruction, Hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, also available in pdf at GPO. Summary: March 11, 2003, testimony from Dr. Gordon Adams, Dr. Phebe Marr, Ms. Sandra Mitchell, Ms. Bernice Romero, Mr. Eric P. Schwartz.  -- Tim Schmoyer.

These Are Not Ideologues (Web site)
These Are Not Ideologues. By L. Paul Bremer, WSJ Online Journal. Summary: Names of the top 100 or so officials in the CPA.  -- Tim Schmoyer.

U.S. Intelligence Community’s Prewar Intelligence Assessments on Iraq (Web site)
Report on the U.S. Intelligence Community’s Prewar Intelligence Assessments on Iraq. Select Committee on Intelligence (pdf). Summary: July 7, 2004, bipartisan report. Also available in html at GlobalSecurity.org  -- Tim Schmoyer.

What's The Matter with Kansas? (book)
[http://www.amazon.com/Whats-Matter-Kansas-Conservatives-America/dp/080507774X/sr=1-1/qid=1166302993/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-6561203-0118227?ie=UTF8&s=books ''What's The Matter With Kansas? How Conservatives Won The Heart of America''] by Thomas Frank. 2004. Summary: Useful if you're interested in why cultural conservatives so routinely vote against their economic interest. Frank suggests it's because they have come to equate the GOP with a creed that represents their values. ''--Dan Conover

The Wimp Factor (book)
The Wimp Factor: Gender gaps, holy wars & the politics of anxious masculinity, by Stephen J. Ducat. 2004. Summary: Ducat is a psychologist who applies ideas about gender identity and anxiety to politics. There are some pretty clear connections to the work of Lakoff and Luntz here, too. ''--Dan Conover'