Fred Kaplan writes the "War Stories" column in Slate, and contributes frequently to the New York Times. The author of the classic book The Wizards of Armageddon, he has also written for the New Yorker, the Washington Post, The Atlantic, and other publications. A former Boston Globe newspaper reporter based in Washington and Moscow, he co-won a Pulitzer Prize for a special Sunday supplement on the nuclear arms race. He earned a Ph.D. from MIT. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Brooke Gladstone.

America's power is in decline, its allies alienated, its soldiers trapped in a war that even generals regard as unwinnable. What has happened these past few years is well known. Why it happened continues to puzzle. Celebrated Slate columnist Fred Kaplan explains the grave misconceptions that enabled George W. Bush and his aides to get so far off track, and traces the genesis and evolution of these ideas from the era of Nixon through Reagan to the present day.