War and Decision
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"If you want to read a serious book about the origins and consequences of the intervention in Iraq in 2003, you owe it to yourself to get hold of a copy of Douglas Feith’s War and Decision." -- Christopher Hitchens, Slate
"Meticulous. . . . A convincing refutation of unfair allegations about the author [and] a balanced analysis of policy debates about Iraq inside the administration. . . . Will be studied for years by journalists, historians and aspiring political appointees." -- National Review
"One would have expected, as in the case of all the other Iraq exposés, that [Feith] would use the memoir genre to get even. Instead, he is self–critical, even admits to occasional hubris, but, more importantly, also chronicles the contortions and reinventions of many post–2003/4 critics of the war." -- Victor Davis Hanson, National Review Online
"What’s needed now? More memoirs, more data, more information, more testimony. More serious books, like Doug Feith’s. More ‘this is what I saw’ and ‘this is what is true.’ Feed history." -- Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal
“Douglas Feith has written a model memoir: fair-minded, objective, and without rancor. The fact that the policy to which he contributed was flawed from the outset in no way diminishes the historical importance of this firsthand account.” -- —Jean Edward Smith, John Marshall Professor of Political Science, Marshall University; author of FDR; Grant; And John Marshall: Definer of a Nation
“Douglas Feith has written what will be a controversial book. It will certainly anger many readers because it takes a different position than most other accounts on the wisdom of going to war in Iraq, on what mistakes were made, and on who made them. But Feith’s is a serious work, well documented, that presents the best defense to date of the defining policy of the Bush presidency. It is a readable account that deserves to be read and its argument debated.” -- —Robert L. Gallucci, Dean of the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University; Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs, Clinton Administration
“For anyone seriously interested in the decisions prior to and during the Iraq war, War and Decision is a must-read book. It is the first from within the Department of Defense, and Feith provides careful documentation rather than just freewheeling opinions. He explodes many of the journalistic and political myths that have become widely accepted. He provides a spirited defense of the President’s decisions, though the subsequent discussion makes clear the failures in execution. His judgments are thoughtful—and, for a major player in the process, he is quite objective regarding what went wrong. War and Decision will be a treasure trove for the historians—when the current passions have finally cooled.” -- —James Schlesinger, Director of Central Intelligence, Nixon Administration; Secretary of Defense, Nixon and Ford Administrations; Secretary of Energy, Carter Administration
“The fullest and most thoughtful statement of the Pentagon thinking prior to and in the first stages of the Iraq war. Even those, as I, who take issue with some of its conclusions will gain a better perspective from reading this book.” -- —Henry A. Kissinger, National Security Adviser, Nixon Administration; Secretary of State, Nixon and Ford Administrations
"Meticulous. . . . A convincing refutation of unfair allegations about the author [and] a balanced analysis of policy debates about Iraq inside the administration. . . . Will be studied for years by journalists, historians and aspiring political appointees." -- National Review
"One would have expected, as in the case of all the other Iraq exposés, that [Feith] would use the memoir genre to get even. Instead, he is self–critical, even admits to occasional hubris, but, more importantly, also chronicles the contortions and reinventions of many post–2003/4 critics of the war." -- Victor Davis Hanson, National Review Online
"What’s needed now? More memoirs, more data, more information, more testimony. More serious books, like Doug Feith’s. More ‘this is what I saw’ and ‘this is what is true.’ Feed history." -- Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal
“Douglas Feith has written a model memoir: fair-minded, objective, and without rancor. The fact that the policy to which he contributed was flawed from the outset in no way diminishes the historical importance of this firsthand account.” -- —Jean Edward Smith, John Marshall Professor of Political Science, Marshall University; author of FDR; Grant; And John Marshall: Definer of a Nation
“Douglas Feith has written what will be a controversial book. It will certainly anger many readers because it takes a different position than most other accounts on the wisdom of going to war in Iraq, on what mistakes were made, and on who made them. But Feith’s is a serious work, well documented, that presents the best defense to date of the defining policy of the Bush presidency. It is a readable account that deserves to be read and its argument debated.” -- —Robert L. Gallucci, Dean of the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University; Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs, Clinton Administration
“For anyone seriously interested in the decisions prior to and during the Iraq war, War and Decision is a must-read book. It is the first from within the Department of Defense, and Feith provides careful documentation rather than just freewheeling opinions. He explodes many of the journalistic and political myths that have become widely accepted. He provides a spirited defense of the President’s decisions, though the subsequent discussion makes clear the failures in execution. His judgments are thoughtful—and, for a major player in the process, he is quite objective regarding what went wrong. War and Decision will be a treasure trove for the historians—when the current passions have finally cooled.” -- —James Schlesinger, Director of Central Intelligence, Nixon Administration; Secretary of Defense, Nixon and Ford Administrations; Secretary of Energy, Carter Administration
“The fullest and most thoughtful statement of the Pentagon thinking prior to and in the first stages of the Iraq war. Even those, as I, who take issue with some of its conclusions will gain a better perspective from reading this book.” -- —Henry A. Kissinger, National Security Adviser, Nixon Administration; Secretary of State, Nixon and Ford Administrations
Product Description
In the years since the attacks of September 11, 2001, journalists, commentators, and others have published accounts of the Bush Administration's war on terrorism. But no senior Pentagon official has offered an inside view of those years, or has challenged the prevailing narrative of that war—until now.
Douglas J. Feith, the head of the Pentagon's Policy organization, was a key member of Donald Rumsfeld's inner circle as the Administration weighed how to protect the nation from another 9/11. In War and Decision, he puts readers in the room with President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell, General Tommy Franks, and other key players as the Administration devised its strategy and war plans. Drawing on thousands of previously undisclosed documents, notes, and other written sources, Feith details how the Administration launched a global effort to attack and disrupt terrorist networks; how it decided to overthrow the Saddam Hussein regime; how it came to impose an occupation on Iraq even though it had avoided one in Afghanistan; how some officials postponed or impeded important early steps that could have averted major problems in Iraq's post-Saddam period; and how the Administration's errors in war-related communications undermined the nation's credibility and put U.S. war efforts at risk.
Even close followers of reporting on the Iraq war will be surprised at the new information Feith provides—presented here with balance and rigorous attention to detail. Among other revelations, War and Decision demonstrates that the most far-reaching warning of danger in Iraq was produced not by State or by the CIA, but by the Pentagon. It reveals the actual story behind the allegations that the Pentagon wanted to "anoint" Ahmad Chalabi as ruler of Iraq, and what really happened when the Pentagon challenged the CIA's work on the Iraq–al Qaida relationship. It offers the first accurate account of Iraq postwar planning—a topic widely misreported to date. And it presents surprising new portraits of Rumsfeld, Rice, Powell, Richard Armitage, L. Paul Bremer, and others—revealing how differences among them shaped U.S. policy.
With its blend of vivid narrative, frank analysis, and elegant writing, War and Decision is like no other book on the Iraq war. It will interest those who have been troubled by conflicting accounts of the planning of the war, frustrated by the lack of firsthand insight into the decision-making process, or skeptical of conventional wisdom about Operation Iraqi Freedom and the global war on terrorism—efforts the author continues to support.
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Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs):
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special operations forces, executive steering group, liberation strategy, campaign planning committee, postwar planning office, catastrophic weapons, weapons declaration, state supporters, interagency meetings, former intelligence officials, intelligence errors, warlord militias Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
United States, President Bush, Security Council, Saddam Hussein, Defense Department, United Nations, State Department, Northern Alliance, White House, Bush Administration, Governing Council, Gulf War, Principals Committee, Middle East, Deputies Committee, General Myers, North Korea, Joint Staff, Secretary of Defense, General Franks, Geneva Conventions, Soviet Union, Iraq Survey Group, Baath Party, Free Iraqi Forces Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
special operations forces, executive steering group, liberation strategy, campaign planning committee, postwar planning office, catastrophic weapons, weapons declaration, state supporters, interagency meetings, former intelligence officials, intelligence errors, warlord militias Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
United States, President Bush, Security Council, Saddam Hussein, Defense Department, United Nations, State Department, Northern Alliance, White House, Bush Administration, Governing Council, Gulf War, Principals Committee, Middle East, Deputies Committee, General Myers, North Korea, Joint Staff, Secretary of Defense, General Franks, Geneva Conventions, Soviet Union, Iraq Survey Group, Baath Party, Free Iraqi Forces Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?
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93% buy the item featured on this page: War and Decision: Inside the Pentagon at the Dawn of the War on Terrorism |
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1% buy Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2003 to 2005 $10.88 |
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