The Last Card offers an unprecedented look into the process by which President Bush overruled much of the military leadership and many of his trusted advisors, and authorized the deployment of roughly 30,000 additional troops to the warzone in a bid to save Iraq from collapse in 2007.

The adoption of a new counterinsurgency strategy and surge of new troops into Iraq altered the American posture in the Middle East for a decade to come. In The Last Card, we have access to the deliberations among the decision-makers on Bush's national security team as they embarked on that course. In their own words, President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, and others, recount the debates and disputes that informed the process as President Bush weighed the historical lessons of Vietnam against the perceived strategic imperatives in the Middle East. The Last Card is a portrait of leadership - firm and daring if flawed - in the Bush White House.

The personal perspectives from men and women who served at the White House, Foggy Bottom, the Pentagon, and in Baghdad are complemented by critical assessments written by leading scholars in the field of international security.

The book is published by Cornell University Press. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks.

"Readers will find this a gripping description of how the president made one of the toughest calls of his time in office." (General David Petraeus, US Army, Ret.)

"An extraordinarily useful collective oral history of the decision-making leading to the 'surge'...." (Melvyn P. Leffler, University of Virginia)

"Nicely illuminates the the complexities and challenges of crisis decision-making..." (James H. Lebovic, The George Washington University)