'Decision Points' Review: 'New Yorker' Blasts George Bush Book

New Yorker:

There are hardly any decision points at all. The path to each decision is so short and irresistible, more like an electric pulse than like a weighing of options, that the reader is hard-pressed to explain what happened. Suddenly, it's over, and there's no looking back. The decision to go to war "was an accretion," Richard Haass, the director of policy-planning at the State Department until the invasion of Iraq, told me. "A decision was not made--a decision happened, and you can't say when or how."

Read the whole story: New Yorker

Comments

[sinbaad]

07:09 PM on 12/11/2010

If you enjoy blogger Elizabeth Gerteiny's political verse (www.bushandcompany.org) you can
read more in her lively counterpoint to the Bush memoir, DECISION POINTS.

THE PRESIDENT OF WAR, an unfolding record of the George W. Bush administration, is available now through Barnes and Noble and Amazon.com.

Own it, give it as a gift. It's a keeper!

[JoeBoy254]

12:39 AM on 11/29/2010

It is a poorly written book filed with quotes from other people in Bush's administration which he tries topawn off as his own. I will not waste the money to buy it until it hits $0.99 at "Bargin Books".

[HST]

11:47 PM on 11/28/2010

A key to Bush's mindset:

One of the worst moments of his presidency is not 9/11, failure to find WMDs, Katrina or the collapse of the economy.

It's that Kanye West said he doesn't care about black people.

[Cleo McDowell]

11:19 PM on 11/28/2010

"'Decision Points' Review: 'New Yorker' Blasts George Bush Book "

Now more Breaking News on HuffPo: "The Sun will Rise in the East Tomorrow"..........

[BocaMom]

09:23 PM on 11/28/2010

What a surprise that another New York publication slams Bush. LOL

[soapington]

10:21 PM on 11/28/2010

Oh yes, all those New York publications, slamming Bush every opportunity they get: The National Review, The American Conservative, The Wall Street Journal, The Jewish Press, The New York Post, to name just five.

[pj-smith]

07:41 AM on 11/29/2010

I guess you Floridians have either sunburned brains, or short term memory loss.

[Threepointturn]

07:56 AM on 11/29/2010

Not all Floridians, just BM.

[IMOPINIONH8D]

07:31 PM on 11/28/2010

Retry; w is a war criminal and one of the worst presidents ever.

[kahalaman]

02:47 AM on 11/29/2010

Yep.

The New Yorker book review just confirms what so many of us have known for so long. This was an intellectually deprived and morally bankrupt man-child, who had absolutely no business holding the highest office of the most powerful country in the world.

[JoeBlough]

05:50 PM on 11/28/2010

It appears that maybe Bush's best years wre the ones in an alcoholic hase.

[WIpatriot]

06:40 PM on 11/28/2010

Well, you know, Joe...ignorance IS bliss....

[01202009]

04:59 PM on 11/28/2010

I hardly thought the New Yorker article blasted Bush. If anything the author seemed to go out of his way to be fair to him. The fact that Bush is signing books in stores instead of sitting in the dock in The Hague and the fact that Karl Rove is free to try and steel elections instead of sitting in prison is a testament to how low we have set the bar. What's it going to take to wake the American people?

[WIpatriot]

06:39 PM on 11/28/2010

Co-signed, my friend.

[lost souls rembrd]

04:16 PM on 11/28/2010

there's a bird in that bush and he is 'cuckoo'

[WIpatriot]

06:39 PM on 11/28/2010

Yuppers...LOL.

[jojobinx]

03:50 PM on 11/28/2010

What do you expect from a weasel of a man who lacks one important traits that any leader must have, introspection. GW is not a thinker he is a doer which is like giving a 3 year old a loaded gun.
He shoots from the hip, notice the way he walks, then asks why. His short temper and short sightedness has brought us to the brink. What was once a world powerhouse has been outsourced piece by piece and now we are paying for his biggest F/U deregulation. Cheney and Bush what a pair, 2 warmongers helping the rich get richer and the poor......what poor? They
can survive on minimum wage just fine. They were so removed from the human factor we were just pesky gnats to them. We pay these jack@$$3$ and in return we get what? Overtaxed, ignored, lied to and our children sent to war, a mans war fought by children and even they have to pay for equipment that should be given to them. I better stop before I lose my decency filter and
say things I will regret. To bad Cheney

[Ascoli]

05:45 AM on 11/29/2010

Fanned for such true and sad words.

[Linda from Deerfield]

01:41 PM on 11/28/2010

Regarding "A decision was not made--a decision happened, and you can't say when or how", from my perspective, this is the nature of all Republican "decisions". At best, they mouth a few empty platitudes. Dialogue, debate, explanation, thoughtful logic -- never. It does not leave one feeling that it is government at all, certainly not democracy -- it feels like the playing out of a secret agenda.

[WIpatriot]

06:41 PM on 11/28/2010

Why it certainly does (best Oliver Hardy voice, or maybe Curly)...LOL.

[Amalek]

12:36 PM on 11/28/2010

I read the book. It is an interesting alternative history. If you did know otherwise, you would have thought we won both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

[sobaytransplant]

04:36 PM on 11/28/2010

I have to admit that I did NOT read it and never plan to do so, either. I can find out enough about what he says in various articles from news sources and wouldn't give GWB either the satisfaction OR the financial gain from actually purchasing it.

[enlightenedgirl]

04:47 PM on 11/28/2010

my head would spin if I tried to read it...  someone has to do it I guess, just not me.

[gdfreethinker]

12:05 PM on 11/28/2010

Lies dipped in powdered sugar.

[YankeeCanuck]

01:39 PM on 11/28/2010

You are a droll little elf, and an acerbic one as well. I like that in a Santy Claus!

[Smirnonn]

11:08 AM on 11/28/2010

My condolences to George Packer for having to review this "book."

"Bush ends “Decision Points” with the sanguine thought that history’s verdict on his Presidency will come only after his death. During his years in office, two wars turned into needless disasters, and the freedom agenda created such deep cynicism around the world that the word itself was spoiled. In America, the gap between the rich few and the vast majority widened dramatically, contributing to a historic financial crisis and an ongoing recession; the poisoning of the atmosphere continued unabated; and the Constitution had less and less say over the exercise of executive power. Whatever the judgments of historians, these will remain foregone conclusions."

Well put, Mr. Packer.

[WoodyCPM]

09:14 AM on 11/28/2010

Bush is a narcissistic, empty headed, little man. He puts me in mind of Berdymukhamedov, the President of Turkmenistan, where little children must rise at dawn and dance in the street with balloons whenever he comes to town.