SHORTLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE 2024A BEST BOOK OF 2024 BY THE NEW YORKER From the Pulitzer Prize winner and bestselling author of Ghost Wars the inside story of Americas long and ruinous relationship with Saddam HusseinThe Achilles Trap masterfully untangles the people ploys of power and geopolitics that led to Americas disastrous war with Iraq and for the first time details Americas fundamental miscalculations during its ruinous decadeslong relationship with Saddam Hussein.Beginning with Saddams rise to power in 1979 and the birth of Iraqs secret nuclear weapons programme Steve Coll traces Saddams motives through understanding his inner circle. He brings to life the diplomats scientists family members and generals who had no choice but to defer to their leader a leader directly responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis as well as the torture or imprisonment of many more. This was a man whose reasoning was impossible to reduce to a simple explanation and the CIA and successive presidential administrations failed to grasp critical nuances in his paranoia resentments and inconsistencies even when the stakes were incredibly high.Using unpublished and underreported sources interviews with surviving participants and Saddams own transcripts and audio files The Achilles Trap is a remarkable picture of a dictator who was convinced the world was out to get him and acted accordingly.