"Leading national security strategist Harlan K. Ullman is well known for his aggressive, no-nonsense approach to U.S. foreign policy. By his own description, he demands a smarter, realistic policy, one that is "informed by fact and reason and not ideology, and tough when it must be.""

"The time span of the author's columns reprinted here (and first appearing largely for the Washington Times) is no coincidence. Owls and Eagles begins with the onset of the controversial U.S.-led war in Iraq in March 2003 and ends twenty months later, shortly after President George W. Bush's reelection. What overly ambitious, under-informed goals inspired the United States to launch the preemptive war? What were the domestic and electoral factors that led to the president's decision? And, perhaps most important, what are the consequences of the unilateral war to the standing of the United States in the global community and to the legacy of George W. Bush?"--Jacket.