Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review[A] rich, useful, and important book. -- Thomas Powers New York Times Book Review A thoroughly documented, cogently argued work by an author with vast personal experience of his topic. Kirkus Reviews A vigorous and hard-hitting insider's account, -- Lawrence D. Freedman Foreign Affairs Pillar provides a telling and comprehensive new perspective from the inside. -- Steve Coll New York Review of Books This is a well-written effort by a former intelligence offer and academician. Hopefully, members of the national security community and their staffs will read and benefit from it. Choice Pillar's book is extremely detailed and informative, providing a better understanding of just how hard it is to be an intelligence professional in a world where all that matters is being wrong... once. -- James M. Burcalow Military Review Important and highly readable... This is a book that should be widely read by both the public and policymakers. -- Richard Harris The Manhattan Mercury
Table of ContentsList of Abbreviations Preface 1. Introduction: A Comforting Explanation for Calamity 2. Weapons of Mass Destruction and the Iraq War 3. Alternative Visions of the Iraq War 4. Congress and the Politics of the Iraq War 5. Great Decisions and the Irrelevance of Intelligence 6. Politicization 7. Scapegoats and Spectator Sport 8. The Never-Ending Issue 9. Catharsis and 9/11 10. Responses to Catharsis 11. The Illusion of Reform 12. Real Reform 13. Adapting Policy to Uncertainty Notes Index