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Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War | 
| Authors: Michael Isikoff, David Corn
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
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Rating:  69 reviews
Media: Paperback
Pages: 496
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.2 x 1.2
ISBN: 030734682X
Dewey Decimal Number: 320
EAN: 9780307346827
ASIN: 030734682X
Publication Date: May 29, 2007
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| Editorial Reviews:
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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| Customer Reviews: Read 20 more reviews...
 Well-documented analysis of Bush's Iraq failure July 19, 2008
C. Benham (California)
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.
 HUBRIS OR NARCOLEPSY? March 6, 2008
Phil BORDEN
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
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
How to start a war with bad intelligence January 13, 2008
Charles P. Hobbs (Los Angeles, CA, United States)
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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