War and destiny

"To the all-important question of how the United States should use its predominant power, Bush and his team of top advisors fashioned a revolutionary answer. An America unconstrained by traditional bonds, its armed forces honed to a domineering edge by military transformation, would, they said, not just contain but decisively defeat the emerging threats of the twenty-first century: nihilistic Islamic terrorism, the spread of doomsday weapons, and the proliferation of failed or rogue states that feed those scourges." "The outcome of that struggle remains uncertain. Significant tactical victories have been achieved, most notably the toppling of Saddam Hussein in the three-week Iraqi Freedom campaign. Yet fundamental flaws have already appeared in the Pentagon's transformational war-fighting model and the Bush doctrine that guides it - flaws that threaten to sap the long-term strength of the U.S. military and leave the nation isolated on the world stage." "So contends journalist James Kitfield. As with his Prodigal Soldiers, the account of how America arrived at this fateful crossroads is a story full of drama and personal anecdote, rich in context and detail. Through interviews with