| 
 enlarge | Authors: Michael Isikoff, David Corn
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy New: $7.97
You Save: $6.98 (47%)
New (25) Used (15) from $5.16
Avg. Customer Rating:  71 reviews
Sales Rank: 230239
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 496
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
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
|
| Customer Reviews:
 Had to force my way through it March 2, 2008
5 out of 21 found this review helpful
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.
I wish it went for the fundamental question, but it didnt February 2, 2008
6 out of 17 found this review helpful
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
How to start a war with bad intelligence January 13, 2008
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.
 This book is a must-read. December 27, 2007
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
For those of you looking for a comprehensive window into how the intelligence on Iraq was manipulated in the run-up to the invasion and occupation, this isn't as comprehensive as some of the other tomes by such people as Tyler Drumheller, James Risan, and James Bamford. But it does offer incredible insight into the leaking of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson's identity and how I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby got caught lying to federal investigators and the Grand Jury.
Curveball is explained here, too. It really is sickening how the Bush-Cheney regime and its neocon cabal was able to get away -- literally -- with murder.
A Political Epiphany November 7, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Historically, when we use hubris to describe the actions or attitudes of specific individuals or groups, the connotation is rarely positive. The term assumes a certain presumption, insolence, or pride; it imbues a reflection of superfluous vanity, of emboldened arrogance. In civilian industry, hubris denotes a business approach that borders on presumed entitlement; in political affairs, it reveals a purposeful disregard in the pursuit of policy. According to authors Michael Isikoff and David Corn, hubris is also the ideal descriptor for the Bush administration's road to war with Iraq.
The authors, two well-respected and widely published investigative reporters, offer an unbiased, albeit disconcerting, analysis of the personalities, events, and intelligence that led to our invasion of Iraq in 2003. Their revelations are as enlightening as they are disturbing; Isikoff and Corn argue that the ongoing war in Iraq is the product of premeditated intent, formulated conjecture, and selective intelligence. The actions of the Bush administration, according to the authors, are the truest representation of political hubris.
Hubris details the Bush administration's march to war with remarkable clarity and insight, linking individuals with events in a gripping narrative as captivating as it is provocative. From the use of flawed and manipulated intelligence to the covert practice of silencing dissenting views, the authors weave a tale of deceit, misdirection, and egotism that rivals both Fiasco and State of Denial. Whether presenting a pervasive account of the administration's exhaustive search for evidence of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) or exposing the truth surrounding the Valerie Wilson debacle, Isikoff and Corn redefine hubris in contemporary political and bureaucratic terms, drawing on language reminiscent of Woodward and Bernstein's expose on the Watergate scandal thirty years ago.
Isikoff is an award-winning investigative correspondent for Newsweek and the author of the bestselling Uncovering Clinton: A Reporter's Story, which detailed his own reporting of the Monica Lewinsky Scandal in 1998. He writes extensively on the Global War on Terror and has published numerous reports on the Abu Ghraib scandal, campaign-finance abuse, and congressional ethics. He is also the co-author of the weekly online Web column "Terror Watch," recognized by the Society of Professional Journalists for best online investigative reporting in 2005. David Corn is the Washington editor of The Nation and a Fox News Channel contributor. He is a former correspondent for The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Boston Globe; his book, The Lies of George W. Bush: Mastering the Politics of Deception was a New York Times bestseller.
For military readers, Hubris is a book that will educate, entertain, and enthrall. For senior leaders, Hubris may be as enlightening as it is distressing. It is one book that qualifies as a "must read" for anyone in uniform and equally important for those who have served in the past. How our political leaders employ military power in the pursuit of national objectives is a matter of interest to all who serve; it is even more important when private citizens bring the reasoning behind that employment into question.
|
|
|
