by Michael Isikoff, David Corn
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Product Description
THE REAL STORY BEHIND THE INVASION OF IRAQ
Filled with news-making revelations that made it a New York Times bestseller, Hubris takes us behind the scenes at the White House, CIA, Pentagon, State Department, and Congress to show how George W. Bush came to invade Iraq - and how his administration struggled with the devastating fallout.
Hubris connects the dots between Bush's expletive-laden outbursts at Saddam Hussein, the bitter battles between the CIA and the White House, the fights within the intelligence community over Saddam's supposed weapons of mass destruction, the outing of an undercover CIA officer, and the Bush administration's misleading sales campaign for war. Written by veteran reporters Michael Isikoff and David Corn, this is an inside look at how a president took the nation to war using faulty and fraudulent intelligence. It's a dramatic page-turner and an intriguing account of conspiracy, backstabbing, bureaucratic ineptitude, journalistic malfeasance, and arrogance.
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Well-documented analysis of Bush's Iraq failure, 2008-07-19
Highly recommended reading for anyone who wants to know how we ended up in the quagmire of Iraq in spite of Bush and his cabinet initially proclaiming going to war in Iraq would be quick and decisive, including Sec. of Defense Rumsfeld's famous quip to reporters that "we don't do quagmires."
This is a comprehensive, well-researched examination of why and how the Bush administration took the country down paths they said they would never go, how the internecine relationships in the Bush cabinet, and Bush's disengagement and dislike of real discussion of differing opinions, led to the war and its aftermath being controlled by ideological academics with little if any real world experience, while those with proven track records of success were shunted aside, often fired outright. You get a good look at how the chaotic mismanagement of U.S. decisions post-Sadaam destroyed the secular and moderate Iraqi establishment and infrastructure, leaving the country wide open to fanatics and terrorists from inside and out.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
 HUBRIS OR NARCOLEPSY?, 2008-03-06
Isikoff and Corn have a lot of blame to distribute for the march to an unneccessary war in Iraq. Neocons and other leaders within the administration acted on unchecked intelligence sources when it suited their purpose and ignored contrary facts when they threatened to slow the march. There was rarely a fact the administration was unwilling to distort or a patriot it was unwilling to defame in order to serve the purpose of democratizing the middle east. Perhaps worst of all, the press gave them a nearly free pass out of laziness or fear. Hubris does for American arrogance in statecraft what Fiasco does for it in military planning and execution: it exposes both the sinews of American excess and the price that all of us will pay for it
4 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
 Had to force my way through it, 2008-03-02
If you enjoy reading a biased book filled with false information then this book is for you. After all who needs facts when you have an agenda. I am sick of reading books who use "CIA official" as a source. I understand you need to keep some sources confidential but when who base an entire book on unnamed sources it tends to raise questions in my mind, especially when the book is nothing more than a hit piece designed to make the administration look bad. To all you Bush haters who could care less about the truth then by all means read this several times over. If you are looking for the truth then leave this alone, it is not even good for a laugh.
3 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
I wish it went for the fundamental question, but it didnt, 2008-02-02
Yes, there are lots of problems with the war in Iraq. Yes, it has been mishandled, but the question for me is if this war is wrongly ran or is it fundamentally wrong?
The book tends to argue that we had no business in Iraq, and the situation there is a mess because we should not be there in the first place.
Let's have a historical perspective: We pacified and democratized Germany, and we kept troops there for 60 years. No one is arguing with that. We also pacified and democratized Japan, and we kept troops there for 60 years also no one is arguing with that. We saved S Korea from communism and made it the 9th largest world economy, in contrast with their Northern brothers that are starving to death... We saved Kuwait and Saudi Arabia from Sadam, no one is arguing with that either.
Now is Iraq. Five years and 3000 casualties later we are all whining and begging our leaders to quit with our tail between our legs. What if FD Roosevelt quit after a couple of years of fighting Germany and Japan? What if Harry Truman and General McArthur, just said "This Korean winter is colder than we thought, lets just pack up and go"? Well, they didn't, and they had to send thousands and thousands of young Americans to the ultimate sacrifice.
Today FDR is know as the savior of civilization and democracy and General McArthur has a 50 foot statue in the port of Incheon, Korea as the saviour of this nation. (well, half of this Nation)
But Iraq? Let's just quit... great leader Ahmadinejad and his friends can take it over...
Oh... where have all he cowboys gone?
While looking for this book, I stumbled on "The World Without US" - a documentary similar in topic. After checking out the trailer in the reviews, I got the DVD and the film was amazing. It takes the premise of this book a step farther by asking, what would happen should the US withdraw its military completely from the world? I think that the film makers did the question justice by traveling around the world and interviewing amazing people with amazing points of view. Answering a hypothetical question is hard, for any author and filmmaker, however this movie did the job, weather you agree with the answer or not. Check it out also.
The World Without US - With Niall Ferguson
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
How to start a war with bad intelligence, 2008-01-13
Isikoff's and Corn's _Hubris_ describes the run-up to the Iraq War, including the activities of the CIA and other intelligence agencies around the world. Although there was bad intelligence in general (yellowcake uranium in Niger, aluminum tubes that were not suited for nuclear enrichment, "Curveball", etc.), the Administration selected bits and pieces of this already suspect intelligence in order to promote the war.
This book also covers the Valerie Plame (Wilson) leak story. Only Scooter Libby ever really got in any sort of trouble over that.
_Hubris_ doesn't really get into the actual prosecution of the war all that much; try Thomas Ricks' _Fiasco_ for more details about what was/is going on in Iraq.
Although Corn writes for _The Nation_ and has written _The Lies of George W. Bush_, _Hubris_ doesn't really come across as stridently partisan. It does necessarily rely on a lot of personal communications and anonymous sources, making it difficult to independently confirm what was said. Some chapters heavily use asterisked footnotes, which can be somewhat distracting. And, the book is a bit longer than normal (about 400 pages, plus notes, index, etc.)
But these are minor quibbles. Read _Hubris_, and learn how this war got started....and might have been avoided.
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