The Assassins' Gate

The Assassins' Gate recounts how the United States set about changing Middle-Eastern history and became ensnared in a guerrilla war in Iraq. It describes the people and ideas that created the Bush Administration's war policy, and what happened when those ideas were applied to Iraq. It also describes the place of the war in American life: the ideological battles in Washington that led to chaos in Iraq, the ordeal of a fallen soldier's family, and the political culture of a country too bitterly polarized to realize such a vast and morally complex undertaking. (back cover copy)