Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War

This is another book in a long series on the march toward war in Iraq, and the debacle that ensued. It is also one of the best of these volumes. One key passage lays out the message of this book (page 410): "What had gone wrong? Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Rice and other administration officials had set themselves up by using the most dramatic and forceful rhetoric in persuading the nation that was necessary. They had approached the invasion of Iraq as though it were a political campaign. They pushed aside doubt, they exaggerated, they shared information with the public selectively." Juxtapose the above quotation with the authors' statement, speaking to the hubris of the Administration in the run up to war (page 15): ". . .Bush, Cheney, and a handful of other senior officials already believed that they had enough information to know what to do about Iraq. . .They were drop-dead sure of their presumptions: Iraq was a danger, Saddam had to go, and war was the only option that would achieve this policy goal. They did not need intelligence to reach these conclusions - or to test them." Their decision to go to war was based, in the end, on (page 17) ". . .unproven, dubious assumptions and sketchy and, in many respects, phony intelligence. But it ultimately rested on a strong core belief: we know what we're doing." Many of the stories included in this volume are well know, but there is a wealth of detail describing each, with many interviews obviously building the stories. As usual, when dependent on so many sources, one must always know that some of these sources are using their interviews for their own ends. That stated, though, the thrust of observations of this book are so consistent of others that this caveat cannot discredit the overall thrust of the book. Key stories that come to life here: reporters like Judy Miller serving as mouthpieces of the Administration and, in the process, serving the Administration's needs to persuade the American people that war was necessary; the rationale for going after Valerie Plame Wilson (told in perhaps too much detail, given the many other issues that the book addresses); the use of Ahmad Chalabi as a key source to justify war; the strained theories of Laurie Mylroie trying to convince people that there was a tight, close linkage between Iraq and al-Qaeda (outside of the White House and other conspiracy theorists, her work has not generated much resonance); the strange tale of how an obviously bogus allegation about Iraq seeking yellowcake uranium from Niger came to be in a State of the Union message and become a part of the rationale for war; the tale of how aluminum tubes that were physically incapable of serving in a nuclear program were still judged to be proof of Saddam's nuclear program; the revelation that key Administration personnel--including Condoleezza Rice--never read the full intelligence estimates that revealed the grave doubts about many of the contentions used to justify t

"Hubris: Excessive pride displayed by a character and often taking the form of a boastful comparison of the self to the divine, the gods, or other higher powers--often also resulting in harsh punishment." This new book documents the rise and fall of George Bush's and Dick Cheney's grudge match against Saddam Hussein. Its 400+ pages is solidly researched, showing the arrogance, folly and deceit that drove their quest for war. And it provides a slew of new details about how Cheney/Bush drove the political-journalistic elite and the American public (Democrats as well as Republicans, liberals as well as conservatives) to buy into their misguided plan. If you have any hesitancy about reading this book now that the Plame controversy has wound itself out with the disclosure of the Armitage leak, put it aside. This is a compelling story much bigger than Plamegate. It will keep even the biggest news junkie who thinks they've read it all already fully absorbed through the entire book. This book and Tom Ricks Fiasco should be read together. Ricks' book chronicles the missteps of the war itself; this book chronicles the hubris leading up to the launch of the war.

This well-researched narrative, like the book Fiasco, looks at Bush's spiteful fantasy of toppling his father's personal enemy Saddam Hussein, and as such we see a President who sacrifices the country's best interests in order to pursue his personal obsessions. Hubris documents Bush's child-like rants full of expletives against Hussein, as we are afforded a glimpse at a President who is not professional, calm, objective, and collected. Instead we see a President who tosses infantile expletives at meetings as he demands his subordinates get him the necessary "reasons" to invade Iraq. One telling moment that gives us a look at Bush's psychologolical motivations is when we see him in his 2002 History Channel inteview expressing his desire to dismantle the "Axis of Evil" in an achievment that he compares to Reagan dismantling the Berlin Wall and Communism itself. Thus we see a man operating under delusions of omnipotence and making us Americans pay the price. As Bush's appetite to invade Iraq accelerates, we see warnings from his own House Majority Leader Dick Armey telling him that we will "be stuck in a quagmire." Bush ignores the warning. Worse, he and Cheney and others bully military analysts and CIA agents whose conclusions tell Bush NOT to invade Iraq. Meanwhile Bush and Cheney create a "sales campaign" with "journalist" Judith Miller and Iraqi exiles. The book's second half deals with the post-war and shows the leaks and corruption that render Bush's war a catastrophe. This book is fine complement to Fiasco, The One Percent Doctrine and other screeds that have laid bare the virulent anti-democratic and anti-American impulse in this current administration.

I not a professional journalist, politico or even a current events fanatic. However, I have been outraged for the past three years that my country in engaging in an unwarranted war. In my many business trips abroad, I have been asked by colleagues how we Americans can allow our president to start a war without good cause and overwheming popular support. Well, "Hubris" is the perfect answer to their queries. This book has a large cast of characters which makes following the action a little bit difficult. But the authors have considerately included a list of such characters at the front of the book (much like many Russian novels). What unfolds is a shockingly honest description of how Bush's maniacal obsession got us knee-deep into a war that no one wanted (including many top Republicans). The difficulty in reading this book is not related to the writing style or structure (both are great). Rather, it is due to the emotions stirred by the revelations in the book. Bush could have been thwarted (or at least slowed down) at many junctures. But the political greed governing most of Congress proved to be unrelentless. I applaud the authors' willingness to tackle this subject. It's never easy to point the magnifying glass at oneself. But as a country, we definitely need more self-examinations like the one that this book offers. I can now return to my oversea trips with this book in hand and show my international friends that not all Americans were duped by Bush and his cronies. Corn and Isikoff...well done!

Like a Russian nested doll, the recent wave of books explaining the details behind the current Iraqi conflict has represented a continuous extrication of a deepening mystery. There is something new and enlightening to be discovered with each new volume I read. This one is no exception. David Corn, the Washington editor of the Nation, and Newsweek's Michael Isikoff has written a blistering account of the behind-the-scenes personalities and decisions that have led to the 2003 Iraqi invasion. Their reporting roles are well known from the infamous Valerie Plame controversy, in which she was revealed to be working for the CIA. Much of this has been covered in recent, strongly recommended books by the likes of George Packer ("The Assassins' Gate: America in Iraq"), Ron Suskind ("The One Percent Doctrine") and Michael Scheuer ("Imperial Hubris"). Corn and Isikoff, however, shed new insights to previously reported events, disclose new facts such as Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage's role in the CIA leak, and bring the pivotal figures to life, in particular, President Bush whose obsession with destroying Saddam Hussein was and continues to be the mantra by which he forced others to abide. Even as evidence has piled up to the tenuous connection between 9/11 and Hussein, he continues undeterred in his mission. Another figure that comes alive on the pages is Colin Powell, who justifiably feels he was made the fall guy with his infamous UN Security Council speech urging other nations to support the US case for war by falsely accusing Hussein of harboring al-Qaeda and training terrorists. Yet, the most intriguing figures are unquestionably Joseph Wilson and his wife Valerie Plame. Wilson was sent to Niger in 2002 to investigate the possibility that Hussein had a deal to buy enriched uranium yellowcake, a perceived threat which he concluded was gravely overstated. As we all learned, Plame was instrumental in sending her husband because she turned out to be a CIA operative, a fact we learn was disclosed to journalist Robert Novak by Armitage. According to the co-authors, this led to vicious in-fighting to discredit the Wilsons, which included document forgeries about the findings from the Niger trip, doctored photos of supposed WMD sites in Iraq and recruiting Laurie Mylroie, an obscure researcher who was convinced that Hussein was the source for all terrorism. Even though there was a lot of questioning from Congressional leaders on both sides throughout, there was very little resistance to challenge Bush, leading to false stories reported in the New York Times about the supposed presence of the WMDs. The labyrinth of deception is mind-boggling, yet Corn and Isikoff have done an impressive amount of fact-checking to substantiate their book. Even if you feel you've read every book on the culpability of the Bush administration, this one still manages to surprise and more importantly, puts a lot of the heretofore random pieces together into a cohesive