A Sweeping Internal Review

Abstract

This chapter details the review process mentioned in the previous chapter. It highlights a series of high-level interagency meetings as the members of the review group debated the status of US efforts in Iraq and began formally to consider alternatives. By Thanksgiving of 2006, the review group was wrapping up its work, albeit without a clear policy recommendation, and divergent reviews remained among Bush's advisors. In retrospect, some of the president's advisors now believe that Bush himself was already leaning toward increasing US forces in Iraq as part of a new strategy. At the time, however, many thought the president had not made up his mind and that the deliberative process had simply deadlocked.