Departures With Robert Amsterdam

The chaotic withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan and rapid fall of Kabul to the Taliban brought back in sharp focus the misguided policies of the George W. Bush administration that led the US into the War on Terror. In “To Start a War: How the Bush Administration Took America into Iraq,” Robert Draper, a writer at large for the New York Times Magazine and the author of several books tells the story of the Bush Administration’s misguided invasion of Iraq in 2003. Draper delves into the relationships between the President, his key advisors, and the US intelligence community while painting a vivid picture of the misguided decision-making process that led to groupthink and a colossal intelligence failure. The popular narrative on the invasion of Iraq points to the politicization of intelligence on the question of Iraq’s possession of weapons of mass destruction. Draper’s book delves into this question, revealing in intimate detail the intense pressure piled onto the agency by Vice President Dick Cheney and hi