Book at bedtime is clue to Bush's thinking

President reveals he is reading gung-ho study which argues that war is too important to be left to generals.

The best clue to President George Bush's thinking on Iraq can be found not in the Oval Office, nor on any desk in the Pentagon, nor even in the regular leaks to the New York Times. It can be found on his bedside table.

The president has let slip - very deliberately in the course of an otherwise non-communicative interview with an Associated Press reporter - that he is reading Supreme Command by Eliot Cohen, an academic at Johns Hopkins university, which argues for the primacy of civilian control of the military.

The book, the product of 15 years research, contains no directly relevant material on Iraq - but Mr Cohen is an enthusiastic supporter of invasion, whereas the US's senior generals are believed to be extremely sceptical.

Mr Cohen's book ("Superb" - Washington Post) analyses the performance of four successful war leaders - Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, Georges Clemenceau and David Ben-Gurion - to illustrate the importance of strong political leadership at times of conflict, and of Talleyrand's remark that war is too important to be left to the generals.

The book especially admires Churchill's control of the military, which will go down well with Mr Bush, who has installed a bust of Churchill in his office.

Mr Cohen also discusses the Vietnam war, arguing that the then-president, Lyndon Johnson, did not sufficiently probe the judgment of his commanders.

Mr Cohen came out in favour of attacking Iraq last December, when the issue was only just beginning to surface near the end of the sustained hostilities in Afghanistan, and he reiterated his views last week when he criticised the way Pentagon dissidents "whinge to the press".

The White House asked the publishers for three copies of the book, which has a quote from Bill Kristol, the pro-invasion editor of the Weekly Standard on its cover, suggesting: "If I could ask President Bush to read one book, this would be it." Mr Cohen described himself as "tickled pink" by the presidential choice.

However, the reviewer in another rightwing publication, the Washington Times, points out: "Mr Cohen does not satisfactorily deal with an incompetent president."