Iraq Uncensored: Perspectives (Speaker's Corner)

The war in Iraq is a divisive issue in the United States, and historians and pundits will spend decades examining the conflict’s causes, conduct, and consequences. Iraq Uncensored, an initiative of the bipartisan American Security Project (ASP), is neither pro-war nor antiwar, but an effort to begin to develop collective wisdom from our experience. Cutting across gender, generational, and party lines, ASP engaged leading figures from across American society to take a fresh look at the war in Iraq and offer unique perspectives on lessons for us to consider about the use of American power in all its forms. With thought-provoking contributions from more than two-dozen military and congressional leaders, members of the media, academics, religious thinkers, and many others, Iraq Uncensored begins an open dialogue about who we are as a people and how we can best achieve our security.

Dr. James (Jim) M. Ludes is the executive director of the American Security Project, a bipartisan national security think tank in Washington, DC. From 2002 to 2006, he was legislative assistant to Senator John Kerry for defense and foreign policy. He previously served as editor-in-chief of National Security Studies Quarterly and co-edited two other books: Attacking Terrorism (2004) and Twenty-First Century Proliferation (2001).