ABSTRACT
Every genre of analysis (e.g. military, political, economic) comes with its own set of expectations in terms of the topics that will receive coverage and the types of judgments that are rational. This case study of regime stability in Iraq shows the analyst working within those norms while at the same time subverting the policymaker’s expectations. The purpose was to convey a singular message that current US policies would never achieve their intended objective of ousting Saddam Hussein. That message could not be conveyed directly and plainly in an intelligence assessment, but it could be communicated subtly through the manipulation of parameters of the genre and the clever use of metaphor.
