If you’ve not yet obtained a copy of Debriefing the President: The Interrogation of Saddam Hussein, it is a must read. It is the retrospective of senior CIA analyst John Nixon, who was the first CIA officer to interrogate Hussein over a period of weeks.
The book has received a lot of media attention as it reveals plenty of new shocking details concerning the disastrous US invasion and occupation of Iraq. For starters, Saddam remained aloof from the daily affairs of his own country and was actually writing a novel during the same time period the Bush administration was claiming that Saddam was the #1 threat to the world.
In the coming weeks, I plan to blog about some important passages which have yet to receive much attention.
Here’s a fun passage (from chapter 13), especially considering this is a senior CIA analyst over Iraq affairs… John Nixon makes the case that Bush and Hussein were actually mirror images of one another in terms of character and leadership style:
- Both were fairly ignorant of the outside world and had rarely traveled abroad.
- Both tended to see things as black and white, good and bad, or for and against, and became uncomfortable when presented with multiple alternatives.
- Both surrounded themselves with compliant advisers and had little tolerance for dissent.
- Both prized unanimity, at least when it coalesced behind their own views.
- Both distrusted expert opinion.
- Both had little meaningful military experience and had unrealistic expectations about what force could achieve.
- Both made military decisions based on political objectives… Both took countries that were enjoying peace and prosperity and drove them into war and debt…
- Both considered themselves great men and were determined that history see them that way.
- Both confessed to me that they were “gut players,” politicians who trusted their instincts more than their intellect.
- Both were isolated from reality during their years in power. While Baghdad was about to fall, Saddam was sending off proofs of a novel he had written. In an interview shortly before he left the White House, Bush said he enjoyed being in the bubble, the cocoonlike existence of the Oval Office that insulates the occupant from the outside world.
—Nixon, John. The Interrogation of Saddam Hussein. New York: Blue Rider Press, 2016.
