Grand Theories, Ignored Realities

By MICHIKO KAKUTANI
Published: October 7, 2005

In his authoritative and tough-minded new book, "The Assassins' Gate: America in Iraq," the New Yorker writer George Packer reminds us that the decision of the Bush administration to go to war against Iraq and its increasingly embattled handling of the occupation were both predicated upon large, abstract ideas about the role of America in the post-cold war world - most notably, a belief in pre-emptive and unilateral action, the viability of exporting democracy abroad, the urge to streamline the military and the dream of remaking the Middle East.