For seven years The New York Review of Books critically examined the Bush administration's policies at home and abroad. In this collection of essays, nine of the Review's contributors assessed the human and political costs of the War on Terror and the occupation of Iraq, and looked ahead to the issues shaping the 2008 election campaign. The presidency of George W. Bush, as Jonathan Freedland noted, created a near consensus that the "invasion of Iraq was a calamity" and "reduced America's standing in the world and made the United States less, not more secure." And Joan Didion described Vice President Dick Cheney as "the central player in the system of willed errors and reversals that is the Bush administration."--Publisher description.