Product Description
As violence in Iraq reaches unnerving levels in 2006, a second front in the war rages at the highest levels of the Bush administration. In his fourth book on President George W. Bush, Bob Woodward takes readers deep inside the tensions, secret debates, unofficial backchannels, distrust and determination within the White House, the Pentagon, the State Department, the intelligence agencies and the U.S. military headquarters in Iraq. With unparalleled intimacy and detail, this gripping account of a president at war describes a period of distress and uncertainty within the U.S. government from 2006 through mid-2008. The White House launches a secret strategy review that excludes the military. General George Casey, the commander in Iraq, believes that President Bush does not understand the war and eventually concludes he has lost the president's confidence. The Joint Chiefs of Staff also conduct a secret strategy review that goes nowhere. On the verge of revolt, they worry that the military will be blamed for a failure in Iraq.Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice strongly opposes a surge of additional U.S. forces and confronts the president, who replies that her suggestions would lead to failure. The president keeps his decision to fire Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld from Vice President Dick Cheney until two days before he announces it. A retired Army general uses his high-level contacts to shape decisions about the war, as Bush and Cheney use him to deliver sensitive messages outside the chain of command. For months, the administration's strategy reviews continue in secret, with no deadline and no hurry, in part because public disclosure would harm Republicans in the November 2006 elections. National Security Adviser Stephen J. Hadley tells Rice, "We've got to do it under the radar screen because the electoral season is so hot."The War Within provides an exhaustive account of the struggles of General David Petraeus, who takes over in Iraq during one of the bleakest and most violent periods of the war. It reveals how breakthroughs in military operations and surveillance account for much of the progress as violence in Iraq plummets in the middle of 2007.Woodward interviewed key players, obtained dozens of never-before-published documents, and had nearly three hours of exclusive interviews with President Bush. The result is a stunning, firsthand history of the years from mid-2006, when the White House realizes the Iraq strategy is not working, through the decision to surge another 30,000 U.S. troops in 2007, and into mid-2008, when the war becomes a fault line in the presidential election.The War Within addresses head-on questions of leadership, not just in war but in how we are governed and the dangers of unwarranted secrecy.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 96 reviews)

One of Woodwards best by Kathleen James (New Mexico)

5 Stars
September 16, 2009
Woodward gives true insight into the last two years of the GW Bush presidency. The actual quotes of the players involved are fascinating. Some of my preconceptions were changed; some were confirmed. Recommendation: read it! You decide.

It just isn't that good.... by Mark Sean Redinger (London, United Kingdom)

2 Stars
July 25, 2009
It reminds me of Dutch. Bob Woodward had immense access but I don't think he captures the essence of the President in crisis or of his decision making during the conflict. Perhaps we are too close to events to fairly evaluate choices made by the administration, but this doesn't really scratch the surface except to rehash some stereotypes. Although the author's conclusion seems to be that Bush "shot from the hip" and ignored his advisors the preceding 400 pages of analysis and discussion don't seem to accord with this. I had hoped for more, but it just isn't that good.

Weakest of the Series but Still Very Good by Voost (Los Angeles, CA)

4 Stars
June 27, 2009
I've read all of Woodward's Bush Presidency series. As a whole this series is obviously excellent. But I think this is the weakest of all four of the books. Still at times a great read. If you've read the others you should read this to end the series. I wonder if he will do the same thing with the Obama presidency?

An Important Historical Document, Though Lacking in Perspective by CJA (Minneapolis, MN)

3 Stars
June 16, 2009
This is the last of Woodward's four books on Bush, all of which are worthwhile and contain interviews with Bush and others within his Administration that are important historical documents. Woodward includes a useful concluding chapter summarizing his four books. Whether the injection of American military, political, and economic power into the Middle East might serve to stabilize the region much like America's 50 years of effort stabilized post-war Europe is an intriguing question. What is infuriating about Bush and his Administration is the failure to build national consensus, commit the necessary number of troops and resources, and account for the cultural difference of the Middle East. This doomed the effort from the start and gave us the worst of both worlds -- the burdens of war and quagmire without any of the benefits of achieving stability. Woodward paints Bush as a leader who relies on positive thinking and can-do spirit -- indeed, Bush views this as his most important role as President. While this can be a source of some strength and accomplishment, it can also, in Woodward's view, result in disastrous groupthink and refusal to let the facts get in the way of policy analysis. This book focuses on the growing civil disorder in Iraq after 2006 and the adoption of the "Surge" as the tactical response to meet it. The Surge is portrayed as working in the sense of putting in the presence necessary to calm some of the unrest. However, like the Vietnam policy of the early 1970s, this is a tactical victory only. At the level of strategy, no victory is in sight until a stable indigenous government can be built. Yet what has been created is a dysfunctional local polity wholly dependent on and adaptive to a large, permanent American presence. Woodward does not offer a vision of a strategy that would work. Declaring victory and leaving, as was done in Vietnam, seems unpalatable given the vital American interests affected by instability in this region. In the end, Obama's idea of weaning Iraq away from anything more than a minimal American presence seems like one viable option. But is that minimal force the 130,000 we already have there (plus the enormously expensive web of private contractors and economic aid)? The other option would be to do what we did in the cold war: give up Bush's polyannic hopes for "liberty" everywhere and install some son-of-a-bitch who can restore order and who can be "our" son-of-a-bitch. In the end, Woodward's book are damning of Bush, and it's hard to argue with his conclusions about Bush's deficiencies. The sad thing is that none of this advances the debate over just what in the heck to do over there. My criticism of Woodward is that many of his interviews and inside quotes are wholly unfiltered. Some of the internal conversations relayed to Woodward seem so one-sided that they could not be accurate (the recounting of the besting of Rumsfeld struck me as laughable). Yet Woodward repeats the accounts uncritically. Woodward also seems more interested in breathless recounting of the lives of the powerful than in a broad view of the historical and political questions that bedevil the United States in the Middle East.

Yawn by M. E. Llorens (Miami FL)

2 Stars
April 21, 2009
Could not get past the first 100 or so pages. Just because you have the access as a journalist doesn't mean you should write a book. This will definitely only have value for historians. The important news about the covert assassination plan can be gleaned from the newspapers' book reviews. Not worth buying. Should have known it, because "The Plan" was already a bore.

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