Review of Bob Woodward's New Book

[Herb Schaffler]

An inside look at America's war in Iraq, September 8, 2008
By Future Watch Writer (Washington, D.C. Area) - [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link.
What is particularly interesting about this latest Bob Woodward inside look at the Iraq war is the picture it paints of growing dissension in the military over the war. The "surge" was an idea created by a neo-conservative think tank, the American Enterprise Institute, and imposed on the military.

Indeed, what is truly amazing and in many ways disturbing is the huge influence of AEI over military policy and its efforts to influence military decisions, especially through its contacts in the Vice President's office.

A long term view of what Bush wants can be seen from a statement on page 410 by General Keane, one of the architects of the surge about the Middle East: "We're going to be here for 50 years minimum" "Where should we have bases? .... Where should we have forward industrial bases." This is a vision for a massive permanent American presence in the Persian Gulf.

Unfortunately, Bush has been unwilling to raise the cash to pay for all this. Bush remains the only President in U.S. history who combined war with a program of tax cuts at home. The end result has been a dangerous over-extension of power.

This book should be read with Joe Stiglitz's [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link. Stiglitz is the former chief economist of the World Bank so there is reason to take his views seriously.

It should also be read in conjunction with [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link. , an excellent book on the history of western involvement in Iraq and [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link. . How many people know that Churchill, the great hero of the modern neo-conservative movement wanted to use poison gas against Iraqi civilians?

To see the internal Bush administration machinations in this book in still another perspective, I would recommend [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link. written by one of Pakistan's most respected journalists.

For my tastes the book has too much of the minutia of policy making. However, when read with the other books here, you can get an overall perspective of the disconnect between the world of high level Washington and the real world.

Overall, this is a good inside look at the Bush administration and the Iraq war in the last two years.

Bob Woodward and his books are a fixture of modern Washington. Some people are tired of him but he has unique access to leaders that few other journalists have. I would recommend getting this book.