What Led to the Iraq War

Cpl. Edward Chin of the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines Regiment, covers the face of a statue of Saddam Hussein with an American flag before toppling the statue in downtown Baghdad, Iraq, on April 9, 2003.

Steve Coll, an editor at The Economist in London, dean emeritus of the Columbia Journalism School, former president of New America, and the author of Ghost Wars and his new book, The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the C.I.A. and the Origins of America’s Invasion of Iraq (Penguin, 2024), traces the relationship between Iraq's leader and the U.S. and how misunderstandings and miscommunications led to war over non-existent weapons of mass destruction, and the implications for today's Mideast policies.