"More than twenty-five years ago Halberstam told the riveting story of the men who conceived and executed the Vietnam War. Today the author has written another chronicle of Washington politics, this time exploring the complex dynamics of foreign policy in post-Cold War America." "Halberstam evokes the internecine conflicts, the untrammeled egos, and the struggles for dominance among the key figures in the White House, the State Department, and the...

"Regime change" did not begin with the administration of George W. Bush, but has been part of U.S. foreign policy for more than one hundred years. Starting with the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy in 1893 and continuing into our own time, the United States has not hesitated to overthrow governments that stood in the way of its political and economic goals. The invasion of Iraq in 2003 is the latest, though perhaps not the last, example of the dangers...

Presents a review of America's use of military tactics, CIA intervention, and economic coercion to assist ally nations with known histories of human rights violations and preserve its own political and market interests.

The author argues that our secret operations in Iraq and elsewhere around the globe will continue to exact a price at home unless President Obama begins to crack down on the Pentagon before it successfully dismantles the American Dream.

"Americans are weary of acting as the world's policeman, especially in the face of our unending economic troubles at home. President Obama stands for cutting defense budgets, leaving Afghanistan, abandoning Iraq, appeasing Russia, and offering premature declarations of victory over al Qaeda. Meanwhile, some Republicans now also argue for a far smaller and less expensive American footprint abroad. Pulitzer Prize-winning Wall Street Journal columnist...