Confronting Saddam Hussein

Melvyn P. Leffler's book examines why the United States invaded Iraq, emphasizing fear, power, hubris, and dysfunction in the Bush administration's decision-making after 9/11.

Drawing on new documentation, interviews, and memoirs, Leffler portrays Bush's strategy of coercive diplomacy aimed at disarming Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction, which ultimately led to war due to Hussein's defiance and Washington's miscalculations.

The work provides a nuanced view, neither indicting nor acquitting, but explaining the tragedy of poor planning and conflation of Hussein's brutality with exaggerated threats.