Did the Bush Administration mean well?

This review engages with Melvyn Leffler's new book on the origins of the (second) Iraq war. It focusses particularly upon his argument that the Bush administration, and especially the president himself, genuinely regarded Iraq as a serious threat and initiated the war in 2003 for understandable reasons of national security. The review acknowledges that Leffler makes a strong case that Bush himself was motivated by such concerns, but goes on to argue that Leffler underplays the role of White House officials and beltway journalists and lobbyists who seemed clearly to have other motivations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]