No Doubt
Just finished Woodward's Plan of Attack, and it was a little like reading a Tom Clancy novel, what with all the technical mumbo jumbo (that really started to make my eyes glaze over). It did give me a sense that Powell and his deputy, the profane Richard Armitage (my favorite "character" in this story), were really trying to temper this administration's enthusiasm for war (though this could also be attributed to Woodward's acceptance of Powell's own filter of history). And the book certainly does show a rather unstoppable, steamrolling move to war by this administration without a lot of internal questioning. (In one of the most widely noted passages, Bush is skeptical about the CIA's presentation of WMD evidence--but largely in the context of how to present it to the American public, not in determining his decision.)

But this is by far my favorite passage in the book, near the end, during Woodward's interview with Bush:

We turned to the question of doubts. I quoted what Tony Blair recently had said at his party's annual confernce: "I do not at all disrespect anyone who disagrees with me." Blair had also said he had received letters from those who had lost sons in the war who wrote that they hated him for what he did. I quoted Blair, "And don't believe anyone who tells you when they receive letters like that they don't suffer any doubt."

"Yeah," President Bush replied. "I haven't suffered doubt."

"Is that right?" I asked. "Not at all?"

"No. And I'm able to convey that to the people"

I also think this is priceless:

At times, Powell thought Chalabi was the biggest problem they had in Iraq. From the reports Armitage received from Iraq, most Iraqis thought Chalabi was a knucklehead.

I'd like to get the Arabic translation of "knucklehead."