Framing The Iraq War Endgame

This book traces the evolution of political and media discourse on the Iraq war endgame over the roughly 28-month period from late fall 2005 to spring 2008. Using the conceptualization of a 'frame contest' (a struggle between competing explanatory narratives or interpretations of an event), the authors analyze analyze the congressional challenges that began in November 2005 to the heretofore dominant Bush frame of military triumph over terrorism; Bush's and his congressional allies' rhetorical responses to those challenges; and the resultant struggle for narrative dominance in portraying the meaning and outcome of the war.

To date no one has undertaken the task to analyze the titanic clash over how to interpret the final chapter of the military conflict that is the major political battlefield of the first decade of the 21st century. Review: George W. Bush, the longest-serving wartime commander in chief in U.S. history, fought a remarkable rhetorical war after 9/11.

In Framing the Iraq War Endgame, Erika King and Robert Wells analyze the administration's controversial discourse over Iraq. Their insights reveal much about the way Americans deliberate over global conflicts, foreign policy, the presidency, and ultimately our values as a people. This study deserves a prominent place on bookshelves inside and outside the Beltway. --Gleaves Whitney, Director, Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies Grand Valley State University This is a timely and significant work on the paradoxes of defining terrorism as a military problem.

Unlike many of America's past conflicts, the Iraq War has been framed within a set of ideological narratives surrounding sub-national conflict. King and Wells identify the nature of these narratives and thoroughly examine their impact on competing policy positions. The Iraqi conflict developed within the context of a nebulous, controversial political position--a belief that the United States could declare war on a concept: terrorism.

This book explicates the complexities of victory and defeat in a shadow war. Few have defined the problem so well. --Jonathan R. White, author of Terrorism and Homeland Security