This book presents a vital and unsettling analysis of the foreign policy-making processes of the two Bush administrations prior to the attacks on Iraq. In a systematic and thorough comparison, Hybel and Kaufman show how both presidents used historical analogies uncritically to evaluate information, relied on instinct to formulate decisions, drew on moral language to justify their choices, and refused to reconsider their original decisions so that none would question their courage and motivation to 'do the right thing.' The significance of these factors is explained by the 'noncompensatory' decision-making theory, which asserts that leaders, rather than comparing the positive and negative aspects of options, stress the positive features of their favored policy and the negative elements of unwanted alternatives.