Beginning with the successful campaign in Afghanistan, which broke with American military tradition, and tackling all that went wrong in Iraq, former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld offers behind-the-scenes insights into how wartime decisions were made. He discusses interagency (Defense, State, and CIA) friction during the Iraq war and President Bush's critical decision, in the face of considerable opposition, to "surge" additional troops into the conflict. Finally, Rumsfeld discusses the challenges that America faces as we struggle to deal with twenty-first century conflicts in the face of the information explosion -- offering the hopeful opinion that "we will figure out a way as a people, we will figure out a way."
Bio
Peter Robinson
Peter M. Robinson is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, where he writes about business and politics, edits the Hoover Institution's quarterly journal, the Hoover Digest, and hosts Hoover's television program, "Uncommon Knowledge."
Robinson is also the author of three books: How Ronald Reagan Changed My Life; It's My Party: A Republican's Messy Love Affair with the GOP; and the best-selling business book Snapshots from Hell: The Making of an MBA.
Donald H. Rumsfeld
Donald Rumsfeld, the thirteenth and twenty-first US secretary of defense, currently chairs the Rumsfeld Foundation. His memoir Known and Unknown was released on February 8, 2011.
George W. Bush.Eric Draper/White House Photo(born July 6, 1946, New Haven, Conn., U.S.) Governor of Texas (1995–2000) and 43rd president of the U.S. (2001–09). The eldest child of George Bush, the 41st president of the U.S. (1989–93), George W. Bush attended Yale University and Harvard Business School. After a decade in the oil business, he served as managing general partner of the Texas Rangers professional baseball franchise. In 1994 he was elected governor of Texas and won reelection by a landslide in 1998. As the candidate of the Republican Party in the presidential election of 2000, Bush won 500,000 fewer votes than Al Gore but gained the presidency when the U.S. Supreme Court halted a recount of votes in Florida, enabling him to secure a narrow majority in the electoral college (271–266). In response to the September 11 attacks launched by Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network in 2001, Bush ordered a military campaign against Afghanistan that deposed the country's Taliban government, which had harboured bin Laden. The U.S. was later accused of mistreating captured Taliban fighters and suspected terrorists at a prison on the U.S. naval base at Gauntánamo Bay, Cuba. In March 2003 Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair led an invasion of Iraq that toppled the government of Saddam Hussein, whom they accused of concealing weapons of mass destruction; no such weapons were found (seeIraq War). In 2002 Congress passed the administration's controversial No Child Left Behind Act, which required regular tests of public school students. In 2004 Bush won reelection in a close contest over Democratic Senator John Kerry. Bush's later proposals to replace Social Security with private retirement savings accounts and to reform immigration laws attracted little support. The Bush administration developed significant foreign-aid programs, particularly for Africa, designed to serve its declared goal of promoting democracy abroad.
Rumsfeld BLATENTLY lied in his book:
Just 4 hours after the 9/11 attack Rumsfeld said he wanted to "hit Saddam Hussein at the same time."
Paul Wolfowitz insisted Iraq and Al Qaeda were together, a totally unproven assertion, and then pushed the invasion of Iraq.
Other Rumsfeld convenient lapses in memory:
The Director of CIA lied to Powell
1) About mobile biological labs
2) About the alleged connection between Al Queda & Saddam Hussein
3) About the aluminum tubes and the Iraq nuclear program.
I read Doug Feith's book, War and Decision. It's not hard for an open mind that paid attention to Iraq before 2003 to come to the conclusion that the media stampeded public opinion on Iraq.
I don't think the intensely emotional popular opinion that was thusly formed will stand the test of time.
member. 
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