The Trial of George W. Bush

Jastrow puts the 43rd president on trial for war crimes in his provocative if uneven debut. While golfing in Scotland in the present day, George W. Bush is hastily arrested by UN commandos and whisked to the Hague. The U.S. military plan a rescue operation, but it’s aborted, leaving Bush to grumpily assemble a defense team to combat charges of crimes against humanity committed during the Iraq War. The prosecution, led by a team of American and Iraqi lawyers, builds its case using the Iraqi blogger known as Riverbend, who agrees to testify only in a burka and with a disguised voice, and former State Department official Richard A. Clarke. The defense calls Gen. Tommy Franks and Condolezza Rice, and ultimately Bush decides to take the stand. As the trial concludes, a last-minute revelation leaves the outcome undetermined. Jastrow shines when portraying Bush’s defiance (“ ‘You are in deep shit for doing this,’ Bush said, ripping up the arrest warrant and flinging it back in the deputy prosecutor’s face”), but the skimpiness of the trial and underdeveloped characters dull the impact of his what-if scenario. The promise of this intriguing thought experiment isn’t realized. (Feb.)