Harper Magazine

Arabic Language

"There is a wonderful book I am recommending to everyone. It's a small, readable book by George McGovern and William Polk, called Out of Iraq.  And it just very quickly runs you through the history of the country, the makeup of the country, how we got in, the arguments for getting in--many of which don't withstand scrutiny--and how we can get out. It's like a little primer. I think the entire nation should read it and then we will be united."
  —Anna Quindlen, "The Charlie Rose Show"
 
"In this crisp and cogently argued book, former Senator McGovern and scholar Polk offer a trenchant and straightforward critique of the war in Iraq. What makes their highly readable book unique is that it not only argues why the United States needs to disengage militarily from Iraq now...but also clearly delineates practical steps for troop withdrawal...Essential reading for anybody who wants to cut through the maze of confusion that surrounds current U.S. policy in Iraq, this book is highly recommended for public and academic libraries."
  —Library Journal

“McGovern and Polk methodically explain a blueprint for leaving Iraq that allows the U.S. to bring troops home while fulfilling a responsibility to fix what it has broken.”
—Editorial in The Roanoke Times, October 11, 2006

“There will be some kind of timeline, or whatever you want to call it, with enforced benchmarks, or whatever you want to call them, for phased withdrawal. (Read “Out of Iraq: A Practical Plan for Withdrawal Now” by George McGovern and William R. Polk for a particularly persuasive blueprint.)”
—Frank Rich, The New York Times, October 29, 2006

“This is a well-crafted tract for our times.  In a pliable paperback that will fit into one’s purse or pocket the author waste not a word in asserting that we were misled into Iraq, and in setting out the baleful impact of our intervention on Iraqis and on us.  They then turn to their ‘practical plan for withdrawal’…[each step of which] comes with a price tag that they shrewdly convert into a single day costs of the continuing American presence in Iraq (usually only one day or less for each proposed step, never more than four).  What comes through, however, is not so much an economics argument as a wise and learned conviction (with some passing reference to Vietnam) that what America ought to do or refrain from doing in its foreign relations accords with what works and doesn’t work in international politics.”
—Professor Carl Brown in Foreign Affairs

“…a rational exit strategy…is already available in this short book by two well-known experts on the Middle East.  After he retired from politics, George McGovern resumed his prior profession of teaching history and headed the Middle East Policy Council in Washington for six years.  William R. Polk taught Middle East history and politics at Harvard and Chicago, published many book on the region, and has closely studied Iraq since he first visited Baghdad in 1947.  In 2005 he published Understanding Iraq, a highly readable 213-page history of that country from ancient times to the present that should be required reading for anyone wishing to join the debate…This brief book provides a reasonable, workable and inexpensive blueprint or ‘road map’ for extricating ourselves from the Iraq quagmire, and is therefore essential reading…”
—Ambassador Robert Keeley in The Foreign Service Journal