War and Decision

War and Decision: Inside the Pentagon at the Dawn of the War on Terrorism

Book cover
Author	Douglas Feith
Language	English
Subject	Department of Defense
Genre	Memoir
Publisher	HarperCollins
Publication date	April 8, 2008
Publication place	United States
Media type	Hardcover
Pages	688
ISBN	ISBN 0060899735

War and Decision: Inside the Pentagon at the Dawn of the War on Terrorism is a memoir written by Douglas Feith, former Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, in which he presents a history of the beginning of the War on Terrorism and the campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq. The book was released on April 8, 2008. In addition to its narrative, which largely details the period from summer 2001 until June 2004, the book contains a 30-page appendix with facsimiles of United States government memos and other documents from the period.

CBS' 60 Minutes interviewed Feith about the book on April 6. According to the show, Feith is "donating all his proceeds to a foundation he has created to benefit veterans and their families."

Critical reception

• Henry Kissinger, former National Security Advisor and Secretary of State, wrote that Feith's book is "The fullest and most thoughtful statement of the Pentagon thinking prior to and in the first stages of the Iraq war. Even those, as I, who take issue with some of its conclusions will gain a better perspective from reading this book."
• James Schlesinger, former Director of Central Intelligence and Secretary of Defense, wrote that "For anyone seriously interested in the decisions prior to and during the Iraq war, War and Decision is a must-read book. It is the first from within the Department of Defense, and Feith provides careful documentation rather than just freewheeling opinions. He explodes many of the journalistic and political myths that have become widely accepted. He provides a spirited defense of the President’s decisions, though the subsequent discussion makes clear the failures in execution. His judgments are thoughtful—and, for a major player in the process, he is quite objective regarding what went wrong. War and Decision will be a treasure trove for the historians—when the current passions have finally cooled."
• Jean Edward Smith, historian and author, wrote that "Douglas Feith has written a model memoir: fair-minded, objective, and without rancor. The fact that the policy to which he contributed was flawed from the outset in no way diminishes the historical importance of this firsthand account."
• Robert Gallucci, former Assistant Secretary of State and Dean of the Foreign Service School at Georgetown University, wrote that: "Douglas Feith has written what will be a controversial book. It will certainly anger many readers because it takes a different position than most other accounts on the wisdom of going to war in Iraq, on what mistakes were made, and on who made them. But Feith’s is a serious work, well documented, that presents the best defense to date of the defining policy of the Bush presidency. It is a readable account that deserves to be read and its argument debated."
• A month before the book's publication, the Washington Post ran a news story based on an unfinished manuscript of the book. Writers Thomas E. Ricks and Karen DeYoung described Feith's book as critical of Secretary of State Colin Powell, the CIA, and Coalition Provisional Authority head Paul Bremer. According to the Post: "The key mistake that the United States made in Iraq, Feith asserts, was 'the mishandling of the political transition.' The good that Bremer did, he concludes, 'was outweighed by the harm caused by the fact of occupation.'" "In summarizing his view of what went wrong in Iraq, Feith writes that it was a mistake for the administration to rely so heavily on intelligence reports of Hussein's alleged stockpiles of biological and chemical weapons and a nuclear weapons program, not only because they turned out to be wrong but also because secret information was not necessary to understand the threat Hussein posed. Hussein's history of aggression and disregard of U.N. resolutions, his past use of weapons of mass destruction and the fact that he was 'a bloodthirsty megalomaniac' were enough, Feith maintains."
• Frank Gaffney, former Assistant Secretary of Defense, wrote of War and Decision that "In contrast to previous books and memoirs on the subject that have been published to date, Feith’s is not aimed at self-promotion or self-vindication. Neither is it an effort to settle scores with those who have, in some cases viciously, attacked the author in their own screeds."
• In the Wall Street Journal, Bret Stephens wrote that "Mr. Feith's book does not lack for criticism of how the administration handled itself or even, at times, of how he handled himself. But...most of the received wisdom about the dynamics of the first Bush term -- pitting "warmongering neocons" and democracy fantasists such as Mr. Feith against more sober-minded realists such as then-Secretary of State Colin Powell and his deputy, Richard Armitage -- is bunk, and demonstrably so."
• Charles Taylor, reviewing the book for Bloomberg News, described it as a "creepy polemic." Feith, he said "is arrogantly unwilling to question the wisdom of what the Bush administration has done. There's no action, no matter how disastrous the consequence, that he isn't prepared to defend."

Book website

Feith has created a website for his book at www.waranddecision.com, which includes, along with author information and reviews, links to all documents cited in the book. Among these are facsimiles of never-classified and declassified government documents and memos.

Protests

A book event with Feith on the campus of Georgetown University saw "about a dozen students" protest Feith's actions in government and the university for hiring him. An article in the Georgetown newspaper revealed that Feith has been asked not to return to his teaching position at the university next year. On April 23, it was reported that Feith's students have "signed a letter to the dean protesting Feith's departure. So far there has been no response."

See also

• Iraq and weapons of mass destruction
• Iraq disarmament crisis
• Public relations preparations for 2003 invasion of Iraq
• US government position on invasion of Iraq
• Views on the 2003 invasion of Iraq
• Neoconservative

External links

• War and Decision on Amazon
• War and Decision webpage
• HarperCollins War and Decision page
• "Ex-Defense Official Assails Colleagues Over Run-Up to War", Washington Post, Sunday, March 9, 2008

[1] Interview Compilation