Having read most of the books on Iraq (see my lists), I was disappointed to find that this is, at 463 pages, a bloated 150 page story blown to excess with double-spacing.
There are enough useful bits to warrant reading, but over a third of the book focuses on the Valerie Plume leak and investigation. The book is not as good as James Risen's
State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration or Jim Bamford's
A Pretext for War: 9/11, Iraq, and the Abuse of America's Intelligence Agencies.
Solid points that cause me to value the book:
1) Discussion of Libby-Wolfowitz kindred spirits
2) Raises the bar with a solid discussion of how the Bush regime presented a case for war that "turned out to be, in virtually every aspect, fraudulent."
3) Sheds new light on Iraq as a Karl Rove gambit for winning the next election.
4) For the first time that I have seen, a good discussion of how the public was NOT buying the Iraq story line, and how this pushed the Bush regime over the top in terms of fabrications and embellishments.
5) Good discussion of how CIA under Tenet cut Departments of State and Energy out on key transmittals to the White House. At the same time, somewhat rehabilitates Tenet by discussing how Tenet did not lie to Senator Biden, and in direct answer to a question about what technical intelligence CIA might have about WMD in Iraq, said, quite clearly, "None."
6) Adds understanding of Chalabi's dishonesty. In my view, Chalabi should never again be allowed to enter the USA.
7) Useful insights into James Woolsey, former Director of Central Intelligence, as part of the problem. Woolsey helped promote Chalabi and his fraudulent defectors, and Woolsey was directed by Wolfowitz on a special mission to ramp up the Brits.
8) Excellent insights into Judith Miller's "fast and loose" journalism and her propensity to get "too close" to sources, and at the same time, tars the NYT leadership with being as ideologically corrupt and rigid as the White House.
9) New documentation of how the British clearly understood that the US was "fixing" intelligence around a pre-determined policy.
10) In passing, adds insight to the hypocrisy of the Bush regime pressing on Iraq while ignoring the other 44 dictators (see my review of Ambassador Palmer's excellent book,
Breaking the Real Axis of Evil: How to Oust the World's Last Dictators by 2025.
11) Adds useful insight to the Italians falling prey to a financial scam on the Niger documents that were forged.
12) Labels the Vice President as "disingenuous" at best. EDIT OF 10 Dec 07: We know knowthe Vice President is a nakedly amoral person and a war criminal as well as impeachable for 25 high crimes and misdemeanors. See my reviews of
Vice: Dick Cheney and the Hijacking of the American Presidency and
The One Percent Doctrine: Deep Inside America's Pursuit of Its Enemies Since 9/11.
13) Good discussion of how it was Doug Feith's unit that created false intelligence about Iraq having ties to Al Qaeda.
14) Although not really a great book on the intelligence side of the house, does do well in documenting that CIA knew well in advance of the war that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and also provides good discussion of how CIA bent with the wind, self-censored, and lost its integrity.
15) First mention I have seen of the Situation Room in the White House adding a clock with Baghdad time as early at 1 October.
16) Clearly documents how the case for going to war against Iraq crumbled before the war, but was kept from the public and Congress.
17) Establishes Col Larry Wilkerson as an honorable intelligent man who critically examined CIA's "intelligence" and clearly saw that most of it was from Chalabi's INC and probably deceitful.
18) Clearly honors Army General Shinseki as being correct on needing 400,000 to do the job right, especially the transition, and clearly labels Wolfowitz an ignorant ideological cheater all too willing to lie to Congress and make promises he could not keep.
19) Ends with a solid discussion of how no one in the Bush regime has been held accountable to date for this massive litany of impeachable offenses. At a minimum, Secretary of Defense Rum self and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would appear to be richly deserving of early dismissal if not impeachment. Wolfowitz would appear to deserve banishment from government service, and certainly not be allowed to lead the World Bank.
This book is one of over 100 books inspired by the lies that led us to an elective war where political knaves prevented the U.S. Army from doing it right. General Tommy Franks is mentioned across nine pages; in the end, history will show, I believe, that the real failure of command was at the four-star level in the Pentagon and at US Central Command--we all expect politicians to lie, cheat, and steal; we expect more from our officers in uniform. They should have closed ranks, spoken up, and prevented our honorable men and women of the Armed Forces from being sent in harm's way for no good reason. I am reminded of Jim Webb's "Friendly Fire." I have always thought that an officer's first and foremost duty was to protect his or her troops from illegal orders and stupid orders by those further up in the chain of command. We failed. More US soldieres and private military contractors have died in Afghanistan and Iraq than were murdered on 9/11, and this deceitful White House has in addition created over 65,000 amputees and permanently disabled veterans whose lives have been shattered, not by combat, but by impeachable breaches of the public trust at all levels of the elected and politically appointed federal government, and by the failure of their flag officers to defend them from mendacious idiocy.
Sadly, Congress failed America as well, refusing to fulfill its Article 1 responsibilities. See 9wth reviews):
Running on Empty: How the Democratic and Republican Parties Are Bankrupting Our Future and What Americans Can Do About It;
Broken Government: How Republican Rule Destroyed the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial Branches; and
Breach of Trust: How Washington Turns Outsiders Into Insiders.
