Quote Originally Posted by ipopescu View Post
In the book I'm currently reading (referenced above), Herspring pins most of the blame on Feith for preventing the hiring of more experts and Arabists due to their alleged lack of dedication to the president's mission. They did not share the freedom agenda of the administration, and Feith did not want them involved. He is also said to personally insist on preventing OSD staff from joining inter-agency planning groups, for the same reason.

I've ordered the Herspring book but not yet received it. I'll be interested as to what his sources are. That's not the way I portray it in my book. I'll withhold judgement but looking at the advertisement for the Herspring book, it looked like just one more anti-Bush screed. I strove mightily to be balanced and objective in mine. I felt the administration made major errors, but I didn't want to pin them with ones that I couldn't verify by sources other than administration opponents.