4 "It should not take a large": Administration official, author interview.

5 "We'd be betting the whole house": Administration official interview.

6 "is either ignorant of what": Stephen Hadley to George W. Bush, memo, November 8, 2006, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/29/world/middleeast/29mtext.html?_r=1&oref=slogin.

7 "How's your boy?": Michael D. Shear, "In Following His Own Script, Webb May Test Senate's Limits," Washington Post, November 29, 2006, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/28/AR2006112801582.html.

8 "Get me the one-pager": Peter Baker, "Karl Rove Remains Steadfast in the Face of Criticism," Washington Post, November 12, 2006, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/11/AR2006111101103.html.

9 "The Republican philosophy": Ibid.

10 Exit polls found that 36 percent: National Exit Polls, November 8, 2006, http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2006/pages/results/states/US/H/00/epolls.0.html.

11 "He would call every now": Bill Clinton, author interview. This came from an interview conducted for a piece in the New York Times Magazine called "The Mellowing of William Jefferson Clinton," May 31, 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/31/magazine/31clinton-t.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print. Some of this was used in the article, and some was not.

12 "You could do it": Administration official, author interview.

13 "political progress will help": White House briefing slides, later declassified and released when the president made his surge speech to the nation, January 10, 2007.

14 "the hardest and worst memo": Meghan O'Sullivan, author interview.

15 "may take additional forces": J. D. Crouch, author interview.

16 "The Iraqis need to pull up": O'Sullivan interview.

17 "you are just sending more": Crouch interview.

18 "So are we now responsible": Rice, No Higher Honor, 54142.

19 "That meeting is where": Crouch interview.

20 "went horrendously": O'Sullivan interview.

21 "How do you think": O'Sullivan and Dan Bartlett, author interviews.

22 shown up in the New York Times: Michael R. Gordon, "Bush Aide's Memo Doubts Iraqi Leader," New York Times, November 29, 2006, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/29/world/middleeast/29cnd-military.html?pagewanted=all.

23 "The political pressure": George W. Bush, Decision Points, 37475.

24 he had all but decided: Ibid.

25 "The situation in Iraq is": Report of the Iraq Study Group, December 6, 2006, http://media.usip.org/reports/iraq_study_group_report.pdf.

26 "a responsible exit": Cullen Murphy and Todd S. Purdum, "Farewell to All That: An Oral History of the Bush White House," Vanity Fair, February 2009, http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2009/02/bush-oral-history200902.

27 "We're not giving you": Alan Simpson, author interview.

28 "While I knew he was not": Leon Panetta, author interview.

29 "was not a strategy for winning": Dick Cheney, In My Time, 44749.

30 "support a short-term": Iraq Study Group report.

31 "you can't refuse to talk": Dick Cheney, In My Time, 44749.

32 "worthy of serious study": George W. Bush, news conference, December 7, 2006, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2006/12/20061207-1.html.

33 "It's bad in Iraq": Ibid.

34 "I was really skeptical": Condoleezza Rice, author interview.

35 "tried to be a good soldier": Gordon Smith, speech on the Senate floor, December 7, 2006, http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/SenateSession3798/start/32510/stop/33526.

36 "I for one am": Ibid.

37 "a tipping point": Senator Olympia J. Snowe of Maine said, "I think for some, that speech was a tipping point. It was a reality check. We have to admit that something has gone terribly wrong." James Risen, "GOP Senator in Spotlight After a Critical Iraq Speech," New York Times, December 28, 2006, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/28/washington/28smith.html?pagewanted=all.

38 "So what's your plan, Condi?": Rice, No Higher Honor, 544.

39 "accelerate the transition": Donald Rumsfeld, attachment to memo sent to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, December 8, 2006. Accessed at http://www.rumsfeld.com.

40 producing a forty-five-page paper: Frederick W. Kagan, "Choosing Victory: A Plan for Success in Iraq," American Enterprise Institute, http://www.aei.org/files/2007/01/05/20070111_ChoosingVictoryupdated.pdf.

41 "One of the biggest problems": Eliot Cohen, author interview.

42 "to my mind, this is a major": Ricks, Gamble, 98101.

43 "This is a fool's errand": Barry McCaffrey, author interview at the time.

44 "It was clear that Bush thought": Stephen Biddle, author interview.

45 "How is it that Jack Keane's getting": Senior military official, author interview.

46 "I guess you have to resign": John Abizaid and Eric Edelman, author interviews.

47 "Keane is great as a validator": Stephen Hadley, author interview.

48 "If senior generals had resigned": Feaver, "Right to Be Right."

49 "Steve Hadley," recalled William Luti: William Luti, author interview.

50 Casey was "adamantly opposed": Casey, Strategic Reflections, 14344.

51 "Without a basic level": Baker, "Final Days."

52 "We will fade it": Bartlett interview.

53 "Hadley, do you think the surge": Hadley interview.

CHAPTER 30: "EVERYBODY KNEW THIS WAS THE LAST BULLET IN THE CHAMBER"

1 "The president didn't want": J. D. Crouch, author interview.

2 "Cheney was supposed to": Dan Bartlett, author interview.

3 "The question is when do": Dick Cheney, In My Time, 45052.

4 "We're betting the farm": Ibid.

5 "I don't think that you have": Several participants, author interviews. See also Woodward, War Within, 28789; and Feaver, "Right to Be Right."

6 "My concerns were practical": Peter Schoomaker, e-mail exchange with author.

7 "We're concerned we're going to break": Joshua Bolten, author interview.

8 "we will break" the military: Ann Scott Tyson, "General Says Army Will Need to Grow," Washington Post, December 15, 2006, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/14/AR2006121400803.html.

9 "a man of rectitude": Dick Cheney, address, Donald Rumsfeld departure ceremony, December 15, 2006, http://207.245.165.145/news/releases/2006/12/20061215-8.html.

10 "We need to reset our military": George W. Bush, interview with Peter Baker, Michael Abramowitz, and Michael Fletcher for the Washington Post, December 19, 2006, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/19/AR2006121900880.html.

11 "Our commanders do not want": Gordon and Trainor, Endgame, 3056. Robert Gates was so pessimistic about a surge that he recommended developing a "Plan B should the Baghdad effort fail to show much success."

12 he was alarmed and alerted: Ricks, Gamble, 118; and Woodward, War Within, 29799.

13 reached out to Petraeus: O'Sullivan and David Petraeus, author interviews.

14 "Look, Chairman, this is": Petraeus interview.

15 "You're going to do it": Rice, No Higher Honor, 54445.

16 "No, I am going to commit": Crouch interview.

17 "another Washington Post debate": Ibid.

18 "Go to hell," one yelled: Sudarsan Raghavan, "In Hussein's Last Minutes, Jeers and a Cry for Calm," Washington Post, December 31, 2006, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/30/AR2006123000392.html.

19 "We've decided to be a bear": Administration official, author interview.

20 "Enough! Does the guy want": Ibid.

21 Donald Rumsfeld "went ballistic": Dan Senor, author interview.

22 "Tell me how this ends": Atkinson, In the Company of Soldiers, 6.

23 She suggested the Library: Draper, Dead Certain, 410.

24 "I know you feel really alone": O'Sullivan interview.

25 Seventy-three percent: USA Today/Gallup poll, conducted January 57, 2007.

26 "Let's go": William Burck, author interview.

27 "wound tightly": Crouch interview.

28 "The situation in Iraq is": George W. Bush, address to nation, January 10, 2007, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2007/01/20070110-7.html.

29 "a lot of persuasive power": Matthew Scully, author interview.

30 "Watching his facial expressions": Crouch interview.

31 "So how did it go?": Rice, No Higher Honor, 547.

32 "the most dangerous foreign policy": Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, January 11, 2007, Federal News Service transcript.

33 "bought into his dream": Ibid.

34 "The country was tired": Peter Wehner, author interview.

35 "the loneliest of George's": Laura Bush, Spoken from the Heart, 421.

36 "It's such a lonely job": Rice interview.

37 "Self-pity is the worst": Draper, Dead Certain, 418.

38 "Thinking about what Lincoln": O'Sullivan and administration official interviews.

39 "You know, I am no Lincoln": Peter Feaver and O'Sullivan interviews.

40 "I know the decision's unpopular": O'Sullivan and administration official interviews.

41 "The president himself was": David Gordon, author interview.

42 "Bush was very seriously": O'Sullivan interview.

43 "was kind of a nonentity": Administration official, author interview.

44 "thought that was a mistake": Neil Patel, author interview.

45 "what the U.S. auto fleet is": Ibid.

46 With just 33 percent of Americans: Peter Baker and Jon Cohen, "Bush to Face Skeptical Congress," Washington Post, January 23, 2007, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/22/AR2007012200236.html.

47 "I respect you and the arguments": George W. Bush, State of the Union address, January 23, 2007, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2007/01/20070123-2.html.

48 "With the pressures from some": Dick Cheney, interview with Wolf Blitzer, The Situation Room, CNN, January 24, 2007, http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0701/24/sitroom.03.html.

49 "By the time I leave here": Dick Cheney, interview with Richard Wolffe, Newsweek, January 28, 2007, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2007/01/20070128.html.