A useful reminder that America’s omniscience is just as likely to be overestimated as are the capabilities and intentions of most world actors.

[The book] succeeds because of Coll’s willingness to reexamine the mutually reinforcing delusions of Hussein and four U.S. administrations.

Absorbing and panoramic.

Chastening.

The story Coll presents is devastating, yet the presentation is so painstaking and low-key that there are relatively few gotcha moments.

Voluminously researched and compulsively readable..

Thanks to Steve Coll’s crisp and dynamic prose, what’s between the covers feels little like an academic tome.

A deep dive that illuminates previously unstudied and unexamined aspects of personalities, policies, events, and reactions of great consequence to both countries. Coll’s chronicle is powerful and compelling.

That the invasion ultimately proved disastrous has been well documented by others, but Coll’s unparalleled research into its background turns up a great deal of unfamiliar, illuminating information. Required reading for all conscientious citizens..