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Having unraveled the mysteries of Washington in his classic best-seller Parliament of Whores and the mysteries of economics in Eat the Rich, one of our shrewdest and most mordant foreign correspondents now turns his attention to what is these days the ultimate mystery — America's foreign policy.

Although he has written about foreigners and foreign affairs for years, P.J. O'Rourke has, like most Americans, never really thought about foreign policy. Just as a dog owner doesn't have a “dog policy,” says P.J., “we feed foreigners, take care of them, give them treats, and when absolutely necessary, whack them with a rolled up newspaper.” But in Peace Kills, P.J. finally sets out to make sense of America's “Great Game” (no, not the slot machines in Vegas). He visits countries on the brink of conflict, in the grips of it, and still reeling from it, starting with Kosovo, where he discovers that “whenever there's injustice, oppression, and suffering, America will show up six months late and bomb the country next to where it's happening.” From there, it's on to Egypt, Israel, Kuwait, Afghanistan, and Iraq, where P.J. witnesses both the start and finish of hostilities. P.J. also examines the effect of war and peace on the home front — from the absurd hassles of airport security to the hideous specter of anthrax (luckily the only threats in his mail are from credit card companies).

Peace Kills is P.J. O'Rourke at his most incisive and relevant — an eye-opening look at a world much changed since he declared in his number-one national best-seller Give War a Chance that the most troubling aspect of war is sometimes peace itself.

• Non-Fiction