Has anyone else read it? Here's my little review:
The book is so well written that it practically reads itself and gives compelling accounts of the background to the decision to invade Iraq. The book is based on interviews with 75 administration officials including most cabinet post holders, and a series of approved interviews with President Bush, who put his seal of approval on the finished book as an accurate account.
That surprised me because the book reveals how Cheney, Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld and others were all making preparations for war in Iraq long before 9-11, and the book talks about how the initial pentagon meeting following 9-11 involved discussion by some neocons about how this could be used as an "opportunity" to deal with Iraq at the same time.
Poor Colin Powell is sitting in what would seem like a surreal madhouse if it wasn't an approved account of what happened, being the only voice I would consider anything close to reasonable at that time. It goes through discussions he had with Cheney talking about using 9-11 to invade Iraq where an exasperated Powell offers up the best line in the book: "What are you, nuts?"
Of course, Powell, being a life-long soldier, did what was asked of him by the president in the best way anyone could have mustered.
I found The Epilogue on the year or so since the war began to be an interesting part of the book. It may end up as one of the most comprehensive and authoritative accounts on how the decision was made with details rarely compiled in a single volume.
The author pretty much lays his cards down at the end that he was against the conflict and sympathized most with Powell and Armitage. At the same time though, he details the lengthy interviews with Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Rice, Cheney and Bush and lists their thoughts and recollections of private conversations among these people that shows their convictions.
For me, the people who came out looking best from the book were Powell, Bush and Rumsfeld. Powell comes out seeming more presidential than any president in the last 35 years.
Bush was a surprise. He doesn't come across at all in the book as being stupid. Perhaps more of an aloof manager (not a details man), and far from ideal since he not always grasps everything he is shown. I was surprised reading some parts of the book where he showed insight by knowing the right questions to ask and making a number of correct decisions, including overruling Cheney. Cheney is a puzzle.
The biggest surprise for me was Rumsfeld. I suppose I came out of reading the book with a little more respect for the man. I think he has a public image as being a political hawk. What came out was a nearly obsessive planner, based on years of pondering his own errors in similar positions during the Vietnam War, and a loyal civil servant who was more interested in doing his job to perfection than pushing his own opinions or agenda on the president - unlike the rest of Bush's cabinet.
The author summarizes any criticism of Rumsfeld as being his extreme focus on war planning leading to mistakes from the lack of postwar planning - exactly as Powell had warned them all. On the other hand, the author and Bush both agree with Rumsfeld that he would never have questioned a decision to stop preparations for war if instructed to.
Anyway, The new Secretary of State Rice will be no Colin Powell. She comes across as unable to voice any viewpoint that she has not pre-determined to be pleasing to the (any) president, even in private. She plays with the truth, perhaps for acceptance. An example is her telling Prince Bandar that he was the first foreigner to learn of the order to start the war, when she had just told Netanyahu hours earlier, and indeed, told them of the plan to begin the war before Colin Powell was told. I wondered how she would react when faced with a similar circumstance as Secretary of State, then quickly decided that she would not react, since it would not be in her own political interest mental calculation to react.
A good read.
