The One Percent Doctrine

Today, Michiko Kakutani reviews The One Percent Doctrine: Deep Inside America's Pursuit of Its Enemies Since 9/11 by Ron Suskind. (367 pages. Simon & Schuster. $27.)

An excerpt:

"This book augments the portrait of Mr. Bush as an incurious and curiously uninformed executive that Mr. Suskind earlier set out in 'The Price of Loyalty' and in a series of magazine articles on the president and key aides."

"In 'The One Percent Doctrine,' he writes that Mr. Cheney's nickname inside the C.I.A. was Edgar (as in Edgar Bergen), casting Mr. Bush in the puppet role of Charlie McCarthy, and cites one instance after another in which the president was not fully briefed (or had failed to read the basic paperwork) about a crucial situation."

The reviewer says that Mr. Suskind's book appears to have been written with wide access to former C.I.A. director George Tenet, other C.I.A. officials and a plethora of sources from the F.B.I., and State, Defense and Treasury Departments, and that it fleshes out the personalities and relationships.

It also describes how poorly prepared homeland security was - and is - for another terrorist attack, and "looks at a series of episodes in the war on terror that often found the 'invisibles,' who run intelligence and enforcement operations on the ground, at odds with the 'notables,'" who head this government.

Old news, but at least the dots will be connected and by someone with inside knowledge and - dare we hope - credibility?

How many intelligent, informed people - and how many facts - does it take to dislodge the governing elite of the G.O.P. and discredit them, then put policies in place that promote the real common good and sustainability as opposed to this suicide ride we've been sold?

More than we've got, according to a second book that Kakutani panned. But more on that tomorrow.