Chapter 30 Summary and Analysis

Feb. 15, the target date for war passes with Bush's allies in Britain, Australia, and Spain facing political challenges, and U.S. troop build-ups are slowed, to Cheney's dismay. On February 22, Aznar visits Crawford and they teleconference with Blair and Berlusconi about Saddam's failure to comply. Elie Wiesel, Auschwitz survivor and Nobel Peace Prize winner, encourages Bush not to repeat the mistake of 1938, appeasing a dictator, and inviting war and holocaust. Bush says Saddam is a threat to Israel directly by attack and indirectly by drawing it into war, which would polarize the Arab world. Bush begins routinely quoting Wiesel's view that neutrality and indecision are morally wrong.

Frank Miller, who heads the Executive Steering Group (ESG) responsible for interagency cooperation, is astonished the Pentagon is many independent fiefdoms filled with paper pushers rather than managers. He calls the various heads together...