Readers convinced that the Iraq War was driven by George W. Bush’s determination to avenge his father, foolish reliance on hawkish advisors, or quest to control Iraq’s oil wealth will not find much to like in Melvyn Leffler’s new book, Confronting Saddam Hussein: George W. Bush and the Invasion of Iraq. Based on interviews with a range of American and British officials, and previously unreleased memos and documents, Leffler delivers an unapologetically sympathetic account of Bush’s decisions. Eschewing the common caricatures of Bush’s incompetence and naïveté, Leffler paints a portrait of a highly capable president, haunted by 9/11, whose determination to avoid another attack leads him into a disastrous war. Leffler’s argument that fear, power, and hubris governed Bush’s decision-making is not new, but the book’s vivid detail of how the panic of the post-9/11 era fueled the administration’s flawed assumptions and rushed judgments makes it a much-needed addition...

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