Skip to Content
You may be using an older version of the Adobe Flash Player. To enjoy multimedia content on WGBH.org, please click here to upgrade to the latest version of the free Flash player.

Inside the Pentagon at the Dawn of the War on Terrorism

October 23, 2008
Douglas Feith former undersecretary of US defense policy

Douglas J. Feith discusses the dynamics of the first Bush term, and describes how we make foreign policy decisions. The following warnings appeared in a 2002 Bush administration memorandum:

"US could fail to find WMD on the ground in Iraq."

"Post-Saddam stabilization and reconstruction efforts by the United States could take not two to four years, but eight to ten years."

"Iraq could experience ethnic strife among Kurds, Sunnis, and Shia."

The author of the memo was Donald Rumsfeld, former United States Secretary of Defense, and it included a powerful analysis of the downsides of going to war in Iraq. Why then, did one of the decade's most important foreign policy decisions go the other way? Douglas J. Feith, former United States Undersecretary of Defense for Policy (2001 through 2005) discusses the dynamics of the first Bush term, and describes how we make foreign policy decisions.

WGBH
Ford Hall Forum
Image of War and Decision: Inside the Pentagon at the Dawn of the War on Terrorism
Author: Douglas J. Feith
Publisher: Harper (2008)
Binding: Hardcover, 688 pages