Why are We at War?

by Norman Mailer

“Because democracy is noble, it is always endangered. Nobility, indeed, is always in danger. Democracy is perishable. I think the natural government for most people, given the uglier depths of human nature, is fascism. Fascism is more of a natural state than democracy. To assume blithely that we can export democracy into any country we choose can serve paradoxically to encourage more fascism at home and abroad.”—from Why Are We at War?

Why Are We at War? is an explosive argument about George W. Bush and his quest for empire. Norman Mailer, one of the greatest authors of our time, lays bare the White House’s position on why war in Iraq is necessary and justified. By scrutinizing the administration’s words and actions leading up to the current crisis, Mailer carefully builds his case that Bush is pursuing war not in the name of security or anti-terrorism or human rights but in an undeclared yet fully realized ambition of global empire.

Mailer unleashes his trademark moral rigor on an administration he believes is recklessly endangering our very notion of freedom and democracy. For more than fifty years, in classic works of both fiction and nonfiction, Mailer has persistently exposed the folly of the powerful and the mighty. Beginning with his debut masterpiece, The Naked and the Dead, Mailer has repeatedly told the truth about war and why men fight. Why Are We at War? returns Mailer to the subject he knows better than any other writer in America today: the gravity of the battlefield and the grand hubris of the politicians who send soldiers there to die.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, History, War, Essays, American, Philosophy

126 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1968

About the author

Norman Kingsley Mailer was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, poet, playwright, screenwriter, and film director.

Along with Truman Capote, Joan Didion, and Tom Wolfe, Mailer is considered an innovator of creative nonfiction, a genre sometimes called New Journalism, but which covers the essay to the nonfiction novel. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize twice and the National Book Award once. In 1955, Mailer, together with Ed Fancher and Dan Wolf, first published The Village Voice, which began as an arts- and politics-oriented weekly newspaper initially distributed in Greenwich Village. In 2005, he won the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from The National Book Foundation.

Reviews

[Moshtagh hosein · Rating 4 out of 5]

شاید بتوان گفت که:نورمان میلر در همه چیز،مثل آمریکا افراط میکرد.
کتاب حاضر از چهار بخش با عنوان‌های: "11 سپتامبر"، "چرا می‌جنگیم؟"، "ملاحظاتی درباره‌ی یک شرارت بزرگ" و "پی گفتار ویلی ویتکلر" تشکیل شده و موضوع آن، درباره‌ی مشاهدات قبل و بعد از ظهر 11 سپتامبر است. نویسنده که به نظامی‌گری افسار گسیخته‌ی آمریکا می‌تازد، در بخشی از کتاب می‌گوید: "اگر بتوانید به من بگویید چرا خدا خواهان انفجار 11 سپتامبر بود، تسلیم می‌شوم اما تا دریافت جواب بر این باور هستم که آن روز، شیطان، بزرگ‌ترین روز خود را سپری کرد".

[Joanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Democracy is built upon a notion that is exquisite and dangerous. It virtually states that if the will of the populace is freely expressed, more good than bad will result...Democracy is existential. It changes all the time. That is one reason I detest promiscuous patriotism. You don't take democracy for granted. It is always in peril...The fact that we've been a great democracy doesn't mean we will automatically keep being one if we keep waving the flag. It's ugly. You take a monarchy for granted, or a fascist state. You have to. that's a given. But a democracy changes all the time." writes Norman Mailer in this fantastic reflection on the concept of democracy and it's sorry state in this country at the moment. While the book was written before the start of the Iraq war, Mailer's assessment of the Bush regime's lust for war and it's probable outcome is right on the money.

[A100junky · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the many ignored voices of reason. Everyone should read this book.

[Kym Robinson · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is basically a hodge podge of some essays or rantings put together by Mailer in response to the attacks on the US in late 2001. The book meanders, which is saying a lot as it is quite short.

Nothing that interesting unless you enjoy an accomplished writer waft over red wine talking over his audience. Nothing found inside of these pages are really that engaging or on point. While I do for much of Mailer's point agree with him. That being that the, then, inevitable US invasion of Iraq was an imperial action I just find his means by which to articulate it to be some what flat, though it did take a lot of pretty prose.

While Mailer strikes me as a man who is anti war and against aggression abroad, men like him who adore some big government policies seem to lose the principle of anti imperial and anti aggression when it comes to certain actions on the domestic front.

Read it if you like Mailer and indulge in it if you want to read a short piece related to New York and the attacks of 2001.

20%

[Will W · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written prior to our invasion of the Soveriegn nation of Iraq., Mailer details many of the motivating factors influencing the Neo-Con henchmen currently ruling America. Using much of the same rhetoric as offered on more readable channels of liberal chatter, Mailor explains bluntly that it is not simply war that the Bush cartel is after, but global domination. The verbage is dry, however, useful. Nice addition to the anti-Bush library, but I recommend looking elsewhere to find a better assembled and more literary approach to the message Mailor tries to deliver.

[Public Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

From the "why do they hate us?" file shortly after 9-11. Compared to the similar volume that Gore Vidal wrote around the same time I found this one less incisive and with fewer interesting things to say. This book is basically two long essays and some bits and bobs from other unpublished material that Norman Mailer had sitting around at the time. If this were written by anyone else I doubt that it would have been published. Can be finished in a few hours.

[Giancarlo · Rating 4 out of 5]

In one sitting a pre-war document, worth every minute.

[Kevin · Rating 2 out of 5]

So Norman Mailer is one of my absolute favourites of all the authors trying to write the Great American Novel and I am trying to work my way through all his books. I just like the way that he has has the self-confidence to try anything, almost every book of his is so different and he is just always looking to start a philosophical argument about something or other (even if he is often massively, massively wrong).

Where he is very often on the mark is in his analysis of US war and politics. So this Why are We at War? should be a good topic for him - 911, the Iraq War, and Bush administration's motivations behind all of that. There are some good insights in here, some nice aphorisms, and some decent writing. Even the strange Mailer theories about plastic and cancer are kept to a minimum. The main problem though is there is really so little to get your teeth into, certainly very little new. What you get is a well spaced out hundred-ish pages involving a write-up of an interview, lots of quotes from other people about these topics, and then a relatively brief essay on the question by the man himself. With a good wind you can get through it all in a couple of hours.

As a result this just feels like a cobbled together missed opportunity to do much more here, not least given there are other Mailer books which run to well over 1,000 pages. Maybe a two rating is a bit harsh. I did still enjoy it, it was just all a bit disappointing for what it could have been.

[Louis · Rating 4 out of 5]

“What is obvious, what stands out in most Israelis, is that they are patriots. My God, they are. After Hitler, how could they not be? In that sense, I am sure they think what they are doing is the only thing they can do, that they are doing the right thing. Just as I was going on earlier about Christians having this great unspoken guilt that they are not compassionate but greedy, so I think there is a similar inner crisis in Israel. I think they are ready to say: We are no longer humanists. We’ve become the opposite of ourselves. Still we protect the country. We dare the unknown.”

“Quantity changes quality. As the Israelis became tougher, so they lost any hard-earned and elevated objectivity, any high and disinterested search for social value. The logo became Israel, my Israel. That was inevitable. It is also tragic, I think. Israel is now one more powerhouse in the world. But what they've lost is special. Now they treat the Palestinians as if they, the Israelis, are the Cossacks and the Palestinians are ghetto Jews.
You know, the older you get, the more you begin to depend upon irony as the last human element you can rely on. Whatever exists will, sooner or later, turn itself inside out.”

“We truly must question the judgment of any President who can say that a massive unprovoked military attack on a nation which is over 50 percent children is in the highest moral traditions of a country.”

“Unless Europe finds the solidarity, intelligence, courage and will to challenge and resist American power, Europe itself will deserve Alexander Herzen’s declaration “We are not the doctors. We are the disease.”

“We are truly sleepwalking through history.”

[Emma Farrell · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I do not agree with all of Mailer’s perspectives, this set of essays provides interesting analysis on the roots of the Iraq War and related topics pertaining to the early 2000s war on terrorism. I think in the context of modern geopolitical turmoil and the current state of US politics, his warnings on patriotism breeding fascism and the general American arrogance prove true. However, a good bit of the analysis of Middle Eastern politics and the roots of anti-Western sentiment was off in my opinion. Additionally, the ending ode to the blessing of American freedom undercuts the rest of his argument. Regardless, his words are still relevant over 20 years later.

[Katja M · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unfortunately this is a book I did not enjoy. Perhaps, as a politics graduate, I already had my mind made up about a lot of the themes touched upon in this book, or perhaps as a dated piece with some antiquated opinion, I was unable to agree with the author. I found him very biased, and in many instances rather inappropriate.

Whilst some of his arguments, analysis and predictions were on point, I also believe a lot of what he said, particularly given the time period it was written in, is clouded by his preconceived ideas.

[Brian Kovesci · Rating 5 out of 5]

This should be read more in 2025.

He wrote this collection after September 11 and hits on why blind patriotism is dangerous, his thoughts on how America could slip into fascism, how the Israeli and Palestinian conflict will continue to be an issue, and how our reliance on the Middle East for oil should be of greater national concern.

It reads like a reading of the tea leaves for what America would be dealing with in 2024+.

The biggest of yikes.

[Rhianon Reads · Rating 2 out of 5]

Norman Mailer really tows the line of self-awareness, but stops just shy of actual critical reflection. It's a surface level criticism of the administration's attempted justification of war, whilst simultaneously being a circle jerk of "American greatness" and a head in the sand discussion about why on earth the Middle East would be so damn angry at the United States.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting blast from the past. I'm not sure why they bothered printing something so short. Norman seems out of his element compared to his writings from the 60s/70s, the times were changing fast, and for the worse as much as for the better.

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Organizing and cleaning a bookshelf. I found this. In another life, it was on a bookshelf in my downstairs powder room in another house and it is short so one could sit and shit and read!

[Chad · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Promiscuous Patriotism"

[ه · Rating 1 out of 5]

Complete bullshit.

[beetlebutt · Rating 5 out of 5]

READ THIS BOOK!! It's a fast read, super informative, and really nuanced. Like a 2-hour crash course on American imperialism.

[Andrea Cobos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Im a fan

[Carolyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some people think Mailer's just an old blowhard. I think he's a literary genius. This book is clear, concise and compelling. It's in big print so even the morons would be able to get through it quickly although they wouldn't be able to understand the arguments therein. Insightful and well-researched. Some of the stuff happening now goes back to a defense department draft that got leaked written by Paul Wolofwitz (then undersecretary for policy - now deputy defense secretary under that MFing joke Rumsfeld) under Dick Cheney (then defense secretary, now moronic VP) under Papa Bush, back in the day. Mailer's interpretation of Bush's motives is speculative, but compelling. Read it. Here's a great quote: If I were George W. Bush's karmic defense attorney, I would argue that his best chance to avoid conviction as a purveyor of false morality would be to pray for a hung jury in the afterworld. Indeed.

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

This, in large part, is Mailer's address to the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco almost immediately before the US invaded Iraq.

The new argument the book presents is that the US went to Iraq seeking to build Empire: that US motivation for war is more subtle than countering terrorism, than finding nuclear weapons, than securing oil even; that the motivation of Bush et al. was really to facilitate moral reform.

"Without a commitment to Empire, the country will go down the drain. This, I would opine, is the unstated, ever-denied subtext beneath the Iraqi project..."

Also emboldening to see him challenge 'democracy' in America and go after corporate America for wresting 'America' from 'America.'

These are the most interesting ideas in this book. It is too short and too uninspired to be great.

[Nadine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Der Autor hat das Buch nach den Anschägen am 11. September, aber vor dem Beginn der militärischen Aktionen im März des darauf folgenden Jahres verfasst. Er rückt den Irak-Krieg in einen weiteren Kontext und beleuchtet die Motivation der amerikanischen Regierung unter Bush Jr..
Ich war positiv überrascht, wie erfrischend selbstkritisch die amerikanische Haltung und das Bild Amerikas im Ausland dargestellt wurde. Inzwischen hat sich viel getan, aber gerade ein Jahrzehnt später kann man die Aussagen Millers oft besser betrachten, als man es als Beobachter damals konnte.

[Celeste · Rating 3 out of 5]

I struggled with reading Mailer's other narrative biographies, so this book was a fairly easy read. While it was interesting getting an insight into the American psyche, this book -- perhaps because of its outdatedness -- did not shed any eye opening insights into terrorism or culture. Having said that, Mailer is a bona fide journalist, with notable quips people will quote for the decades to come.

[Chhun · Rating 3 out of 5]

Norman Mailer will tell you about the reason behind the Iraq war. We were publicly told that war in Iraq was because Iraq secretly produced atomic weapons, but actually it was the Bush ambition to present his military in the Middle East. He thought this presence could take over the rest of the world.
I believe he made the wrong decision this time.

[Ted Burke · Rating 2 out of 5]

Worth the read to gain access to Mailer's always trenchant remarks on the psyches of men with power who are seduced by the promise of war as a positive agent of change. Sadly, though, the prose is stiff and at times awkward. Mailer, a master in creating sentences that ring and resound, is not on his game here.

[Matthew Matheson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A remarkable analysis of the situation prior to the Iraqi invasion. I think that the real reason we went to war was cemented and captured by Noman Mailer. After all the lies/reason that have been told to us, I think that Mailers is the only logical reason that we find ourselves in Iraq.

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

p.110 "Freedom is a delicate as democracy. it has to be kept alive every day of our existence. So, yes, I do love this country. If our democracy is the noblest experiment in the history of civilization, it may also be the most singularly vunerable one."

[Gregory · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a fast read. Although I agree with many of Mailer's assertions, I would like to have more facts to back up some of his statements. There are good quotes aplenty and many of the situations he mentions are still being pushed today as part of an agenda in Washington circles.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for everyone who is interested in why we went to war in Iraq. Definitely a sharp and interesting point of view.

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quick read. Some interesting points