Hitchens reviews two tell-all books.
Feith was and is very much identified with the neoconservative wing of the Republican Party, and he certainly did not believe that Saddam Hussein was ever containable in a sanctions "box." But he is capable of separating his views from his narrative, and this absorbing account of the interdepartmental and ideological quarrels within the Bush administration, on the Afghanistan and Guantanamo fronts as well as about Iraq, will make it difficult if not impossible for people to go on claiming that, for instance:
There was no rational reason to suspect a continuing Iraqi WMD threat. Feith's citations from the Duelfer Report alone are stunning in their implications.
That alternatives to war were never discussed and that the administration was out to "get" Saddam Hussein from the start.
That the advocates of regime change hoped and indeed planned to anoint Ahmad Chalabi as a figurehead leader in Baghdad.
That there was no consideration given to postwar planning.
Emphasis mine.
Unfortunately, people will claim the anti-Iraq war canards no matter how weak and invented. Its easier to be intellectually lazy, believing unlikely conspiracy theories instead of evidence. I just bought Feith's book War and Decision, as well as Yon's 'Moment of Truth' as a premium for subscribing to Townhall magazine.
Afghan insurgents 'On the brink of defeat' - Neocon propaganda! oh, wait, British commanders are saying this.
"Miseram pacem vel bello bene mutari." Even war is better than a wretched peace. - Tacitus
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