Note to self: Never try to fool Bob Woodward

books:

	• State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III Bob Woodward Simon & Schuster, 2006 - 576 pages average customer review:based on 316 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Note to self: Never try to fool Bob Woodward

For political junkies, this book is the real thing. Woodward is the definition of a classic news investigator.

A must-read for everyone

This chronicle is a must read for anyone who wants to know how the US ended up in the Iraq War and how it became a disaster. The book is long but thorough. In Woodward's traditional style, it is easy to read. But the content of the book grows more and more frustrating as you witness the leaders of our government fumble around with such monumental decisions. The infighting is stunning and the denial of facts mind boggling.

The book in large part follows Donald Rumsfeld, as he was the key player in this war. His refusal to play ball with other agencies and accept differing opinions is incomprehensible. Reading this book is like watching a group of preschoolers playing around with a toy, not realizing its a grenade. You're just waiting for something to go horribly wrong.

I know many people may be put off by the size of this book, but I assure you it is a book every American with a concern towards the Iraq War should read. It illustrates how President Bush created a "happy news only" atmosphere and how Rumsfeld refused to heed the advice of the military leadership. And it also demonstrates that the only solution our leaders could think of when things weren't going right was to send study group after study group over to Iraq to find out how to fix it...and then change absolutely nothing.

Eye-opening and maddening.

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A must read!!

This is a must read for anyone interested in our current state of affairs. Tragic bit of history.

A Cautionary Tale

The most recent addition to our understanding of our difficulties in Iraq, State of Denial by Watergate reporter Bob Woodward deals less with military insights and operations than with the conflicts and tensions among the personalities involved. Though lacking the tactical insights that make books such as Cobra II and Fiasco such alarming works, Woodward's gifts as an interviewer lets him paint a portrait of an Administration largely trapped by its rhetoric, and held prisoner to its own unchallenged assumptions. Confronting the tragedy of the September 11th attacks, the new Bush Administration moved quickly and resolutely to the offensive, determined to confront and destroy those whose hatred of the West led them to murder innocents on American soil.

Old Scores to Settle
Though blessed with an abundance of technical, military, and human resources--including a presidential father with a gift for diplomacy and a secretary of state who was respected and admired throughout the world--the Bush Administration soon turned, as if by instinct, toward an old enemy. Iraq, though it had not participated in the 9/11 attacks, was still unfinished business as far as some top-level aides and policy makers in the Administration were concerned. And once the dust had settled, and we had dispatched the Taliban from Afghanistan, eyes turned to settle scores with Saddam, whose sympathies were clearly with those who wish this country harm.

The Roots of Our Problems
Certainly, no one can waste much sympathy on the old Iraqi dictator. Saddam was a brutal ruler, inflicting death and torture on his enemies and heading a regime that survived by brute force and fear. But Woodward's account suggests that by creating a system which punished the expression of contrary points of view, and equated misgivings with disloyalty, the Bush Administration was setting itself up for a disaster at some point during its term of office. When coupled with a secretary of defense who insisted on making all important decisions himself, and who dismissed or ridiculed any non-conforming points of view, the nation was at high risk that the disaster would take a military form. Add what appears to be a world view based on personal or political loyalty rather than objective fact, and a defense secretary unwilling to consider the suggestion that Iraq could become another Vietnam, and the result is an unending chain of bad decisions, culminating in our current predicament.

State of Denial will not add to the reader's understanding of what has gone wrong in Iraq from a military standpoint. It contains little military history or analysis, and struggles to place the events in their historical context. Its strength lies in Woodward's tenacity as an interviewer, and his unparalleled access to official Washington. The book is at its best when unraveling the inner workings of governmental insiders. Unfortunately, the view it gives of our government is not for the faint of heart. It is often said that watching laws and sausage being made often causes the viewer to lose his appetite for either. But watching our government setting its course for Iraq is like watching a fatal crash in slow motion: we are helpless to change things, even if we cannot keep from watching in morbid fascination.

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State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III

How quickly history moves sometimes. As I write this review, George W. Bush has been out of office just past one hundred days. Already, the war in Iraq is quickly fading from the front pages. The arguments have gone from whether or not to withdraw troops to whether or not to prosecute some of the people involved in the conduct of "the war on terror."

Like Bob Woodward's former books on Bush and the war, this makes excellent reading. It is as free from bias as anyone could write in the circumstances. Everyone has a different take on what went right and what went wrong regarding Iraq. How readers see this book will be greatly influenced by the viewpoint they bring to the table.

That said, unless you are firmly set far to one side or the other of the subject, this book will surprise you. If you expect it to "bash Bush," it does not. Nor does it excuse him. Bush comes across as ill prepared for the job of leading. He bowed to the judgment of others and then made the mistake of defending the direction they took him. Admittedly, you won't find many "good guys" in this story and unless you have been a student of the war, you may not recognize the names of those cast in the most favorable light. Those with well-publicized names do not come off very well. In fact, people are so familiar with the names of those players that I am going to dispense with their first names.

Rumsfeld and the officers who served as Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs during the Bush administration come across as misleading the President, obstructing any efforts to change the direction Rumsfeld took the Pentagon, and failing to admit mistakes made. Chaney appears as a mysterious figure who wielded great power until late in Bush's second term. He seemed to lose that grip on things when "Scooter" Libby, his second in command, was indicted in the CIA leak case. Others in the administration - Rove and Wolfowitz for example - had their own agendas which Bush and Chaney often followed without anyone acting as a check on their influence.

Rice and Powell are special cases that come across with both high marks and serious negatives. Powell and his close associate Richard Armitage are credited with having a clearer vision of world affairs than other advisors to the President. Unfortunately, their advice was too often ignored or overruled. In the case of Powell, he acquiesced too easily in decisions that he sincerely doubted.

Anyone questioning the intelligence of the people who make it into the top echelons in our government is making a mistake. However, Rice's knowledge and skill stand out. She understood the workings of the government and the roles she played better than most. She was a loyal lieutenant to the President and during his first term was both an access point and conduit by which to reach the President. As National Security Advisor to the President, she wielded considerable additional power. In fact, she was such a key player that it spread her energies pretty thin while also threatening to compromise her role of palace guard. This changed after she became Secretary of State and she served the country well in that role despite whatever baggage she may have been carrying from Bush's first term.

Two other players are mentioned throughout the book but their influence on the President is unclear. The former President, George H. W. Bush, deliberately avoided having undue influence or conflict with his son. He was a loyal supporter as a father, but not an advisor. The second person is Prince Bandar bin Sultan, longtime Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States and a longtime friend of the Bush family. He advised George W. Bush during the campaign for his first term. Both then and throughout the two terms of the second Bush administration, Bandar provided the President insight into the Arab world, as well as Saudi policy.

There are a multitude of other players from the Administration, the Pentagon, Iraq, Congress, and from outside of government. Woodward is adept at trying to keep the players straight. He fails only occasionally as the story shifts between locations, times, and centers of power. Overall, this is an excellent journalistic effort. When released, it was good reading on current events. Now, it is still that but is rapidly becoming good history as well. It is, of course, only a beginning of that history. New revelations about the Bush administration and the Iraq war are surfacing at an ever increasing rate. One wonders if Woodward will write a Part IV of his series. Undoubtedly, many others will write their own versions.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

"Insurgents and terrorists retain the resources and capabilities to sustain and even increase current level of violence through the next year." This was the secret Pentagon assessment sent to the White House in May 2006. The forecast of a more violent 2007 in Iraq contradicted the repeated optimistic statements of President Bush, including one, two days earlier, when he said we were at a "turning point" that history would mark as the time "the forces of terror began their long retreat."

State of Denial examines how the Bush administration avoided telling the truth about Iraq to the public, to Congress, and often to themselves. Two days after the May report, the Pentagon told Congress, in a report required by law, that the "appeal and motivation for continued violent action will begin to wane in early 2007."

In this detailed inside story of a war-torn White House, Bob Woodward reveals how White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card, with the indirect support of other high officials, tried for 18 months to get Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld replaced. The president and Vice President Cheney refused. At the beginning of Bush's second term, Stephen Hadley, who replaced Condoleezza Rice as national security adviser, gave the administration a "D minus" on implementing its policies. A SECRET report to the new Secretary of State Rice from her counselor stated that, nearly two years after the invasion, Iraq was a "failed state."

State of Denial reveals that at the urging of Vice President Cheney and Rumsfeld, the most frequent outside visitor and Iraq adviser to President Bush is former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who, haunted still by the loss in Vietnam, emerges as a hidden and potent voice. Woodward reveals that the secretary of defense himself believes that the system of coordination among departments and agencies is broken, and in a SECRET May 1, 2006, memo, Rumsfeld stated, "the current system of government makes competence next to impossible."

State of Denial answers the core questions: What happened after the invasion of Iraq? Why? How does Bush make decisions and manage a war that he chose to define his presidency? And is there an achievable plan for victory? Bob Woodward's third book on President Bush is a sweeping narrative -- from the first days George W. Bush thought seriously about running for president through the recruitment of his national security team, the war in Afghanistan, the invasion and occupation of Iraq, and the struggle for political survival in the second term. After more than three decades of reporting on national security decision making -- including his two #1 national bestsellers on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Bush at War (2002) and Plan of Attack (2004) -- Woodward provides the fullest account, and explanation, of the road Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice and the White House staff have walked.

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