JUST PUBLISHED: 2007 second edition (revised from the pre-Iraq War version) with a new preface and an afterword on how America's "victory culture" returned in the George W. Bush era, only to crash and burn in Iraq. An updated analysis of the demise of victory culture, from Hiroshima to the Global War on Terror.

This seminal book to understanding America's "Victory Culture" has just been issued as an updated and revised edition. If you want to understand why the war in Iraq is just about "winning" and "victory" no matter what the reality on the ground in Baghdad might indicate, this is the book for you.

In fact, America has been built on the need to conquer an enemy, any enemy.

After reading "The End of Victory Culture," one might understandably wonder if the U.S. power structure and dominating cultural narrative can exist without actual or created enemies.

With the fall of the Soviet Union, the U.S. power elite -- epitomized by PNAC --
were lost because they desperately needed someone to pummel in order to feel "virtuous." Of course, the real motivation might be that "to the victors belong the spoils of war."

Englehardt, who edits TomDispatch.com, leaves us wondering whether the American military-industrial complex -- and its supporters in Congress and the war -- can live in a world at peace. War is the pretext for their existence in many ways.

If there is no enemy, it's necessary to invent one. Or if it is necessary to avoid capturing a real enemy -- Osama bin Laden or the anthrax terrorist, for example -- in order to continue waging an endless war, that is part of the "Victory Culture" too.

The "Victory Culture" must always seek new conquests. It can never be content being at rest.

"Victory Culture" provides a broad historical context that enlightens us as to how we have arrived at continuing an unjustified war merely because we believe ourselves too noble and privileged to "lose" it.