I have been reading Dawn Over Baghdad - how the U.S. military is using bullets and ballots to remake Iraq. It is written by the editor in chief of The American Enterprise and as such I figure it comes as close to the official line for the Bush administration as anything.
The hardcover was published in 2004 and the softcover in 2005. And the preface to the softcover says that all of the optimism in the book is still dead on. Everything in the book as far as I can tell, is based on the facts he found on the ground - and his interpretation of them. So it's not out in la-la land.
But what is fascinating is the situation he paints, is far better than anyone could paint today. And the future progress he predicts is dead wrong. (And dead is the descriptive word for it.)
In short, the book provides a comprehensive documentation of just how wrong the Bush administration was in it's estimation of how they were going to win the peace. In places it makes the scope of the failure and it's horrible consequences so clear, it makes you want to cry.
So if you want a book that makes clear how wrong Bush has been, written by one of Bush's supporters - this is it.
Update:
Excellent synopsis of the author on DailyKOS. He now works for the White House.
trackbacks: Mudville Gazette, DailyKos
