Known and Unknown Decision Points.

• Author: Handley, John
• Position: Book review

Decision Points by George W. Bush, New York: Crown Publishers, ISBN 978-0-307-59061-9, 497 pages, $35.00

Known and Unknown: A Memoir by Donald Rumsfeld, New York: Sentinel (the Penguin Group,) ISBN 978-1-59523-067-6, 815 pages, $36.00

Depending on one's political persuasions, many will view both books as apologies, that is, defenses by the authors for what they did or did not do during portions of their respective political careers. Others will view both books as apocryphal--in essence, dubious, spurious, untrue, and erroneous. Personally, I thought both authors presented reasonable and understandable accounts of their decisions and actions, but these two books are decidedly different in tone and scope. Decision Points is largely an account by George Bush to explain what information he had available at the time of the decision and why he made the decisions he made concerning the major crises during his administration including stem cell research, taking the war on terror to the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, the invasion of Iraq, Katrina, the subsequent surge in Iraq, and the financial crisis. Bush addresses his conviction, and that of numerous national security agencies, of Iraqi possession of WMDs and his disappointment when no one found any stockpiles. He does explain the fact that Saddam had used WMD before on Iranians and Kurds and that Saddam had the ability to ramp up chemical and biological agent programs once he felt certain no more UN inspectors would descend upon Iraq. Bush clearly did not ever consider that invading Iraq would divert from American pursuit of OBL and the destruction of al-Qaeda. Concerning the financial crisis, he never doubted the wisdom of massive tax cuts that obviously failed to reduce rising unemployment.

The book begins with an interesting chapter on his decision to quit drinking and this single act sets the tone for the book. Whether one shares a personal belief in God or not, it is obvious from this chapter that George Bush is a believer and his faith comes up again and again throughout the book. It is an easy book to read, framed in much the same manner as he speaks, although without any noticeable errors except for his personal habit of using "sure" when "surely" or "certainly" would be grammatically correct.

One interesting factor in the first chapter is the author's statement that he did make mistakes during his presidency and that he will point out these failings within the subsequent chapters. He does so...