Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating, But Incomplete
Review: Bob Woodward has made a career out of access to those in powerful places. He is not a historian, per se, but a mouthpiece, really. This is not a criticism - those who confide in him occupy the highest positions of authority in this world of ours. That having been said, Woodward is at his best, as is often the case in this book, when he is revealing what went on behind closed doors, and at his worst, as this book also illustrates, in providing perspective. Perhaps this is why his greatest source, the slippery Deep Throat, helped him so much in launching his career - he provided perspective more than details, sort of a ying to Woodward's yang.
Bush at War should perhaps be titled Powell at War (with Rumsfield). It is clear that Colin Powell was his primary source, the provider of the notes (well, I would guess also Rice, to some extent) of the National Security Council meetings that provide the backbone of this chronicle. While it is clear that Woodward was given some access to all the primary participants (Tenet also appears to have been a primary source), the hawk wing of Rumsfield, Wolfowitz, Perle, et al, is given short shrift. Obviously, they chose not to participate as fully. Why?
The answer would appear to be that Powell and the diplomats at State lost this battle, and felt the need to get out their side of the story. To the victors go the spoils, and the spoils here are the end of the Taliban and the Hussein regime in Iraq, less than two years after the epochal 9-11. That Powell felt the need to make his case in this fashion speaks volumes about his relative isolation in the Bush White House. It also is a bit of a sad commentary on the cautiousness of Powell, a fine man by all accounts. Woodward and Powell did not have access to a crystal ball at the time of this book's publication, but the doomsday scenarios painted by the State Department for the most part have proven to be unfounded.
Bush at War provides insider information at a seldom seen level, and is a fascinating read, but, in the end, an incomplete look at one of the most pivotal moments in our nation's history.
Rating: 
Summary: important resource to understand this White House
Review: Ostensibly, this documentary chronicles the days and weeks after September 11th, with the beginning of plans for Afghanistan, internal security, and an international war on terror. What really makes this book so notable and useful is not the events it describes, but the power struggles and interesting dynamics in our current White House. It sounds like a soap opera, but Woodward has a wiretap in the White House and highlights large ideological and petty differences between Rumsfeld and other hawkish conservatives, versus military doves in the camp of Powell. Contrary to the opinions of some other reviewers, I thought these insights into the White House situation room were quite scary. Conversation is completely off topic and nobody can continue a train of thought for more than a few minutes. Bush approaches foreign policy like someone who hasn't graduated from high school, with grossly inaccurate judgements and generalizations. He makes constant analogies to sports when deciding how to move forward (e.g. "I'm a gut player.") It seems the only person with their head on straight is Condoleeza Rice, and she is only a voice whispering in the president's ear, and not a huge player in public. At least according to Woodward's representation, the Bush White House could haphazardly fly towards Armaggedon on any given day. The reader will learn things that the public surely didn't know about even a few months ago, including that Bush was seriously considering sending over 50,000 U.S. ground troops to Afghanistan. The documentary also is more telling about how the administration feels about the "axis of evil" and other nations, as well as showing how Bush's PR staff was able to convince Americans that Iraq was a terrorist state (indeed one of the greatest PR magic tricks of all time considering the dearth of any evidence.) Although the detailing of military operations in Afghanistan isn't all that interesting, Bush at War is valuable as an insight into high-level politics that seem to be taking place at a rather basic level.
Rating: 
Summary: No there there.
Review: ...Whatever happended to Bob Woodward? A decent journalist once - now a kind of high-priced shill. A valuable functioning apparatchik. This book is packaged popcorn for the political junkie. It reads like a compendium of Situation Room notes, punched up with hypothetical accounts of facial expressions and imagined personal dynamics. It's got that strange off-note of historical fiction, where every character's reaction is comfortably cliched. It's a mostly sanitized version of events that's served up as an "insider" look at the march to war in the wake of 9/11. Don't expect any revelations. Why would the Bush team give the notes of secret NSC meetings to Woodward when it won't even turn over to Congress the identities of Cheney's energy advisors? One naturally wonders at the conditions for such an arrangement. In the absence of any new information, the only good thing about this type of access is the frisson of excitement we feel in the company of the highest departments of world power. That voyeuristic thrill is quickly tempered by the recognition of how surreally banal the actors are... A quick observation on style: I know you don't read Woodward for its literary quality, and I know Woodward doesn't do the actual writing, but still, this is a Woodward "product", and I expect more from this "brand" and his publisher. Credit (or blame?) would have to go to assistant Mark Malseed; as Woodward writes in a strange author's note "this book is his as much as mine" Must be a legal requirement. And although the book purports to be an inside look, and indeed most of the "action" consists of war-room meeting scenarios, there's not much new to be learned from this account. Nothing real juicy. Reading it, I wondered what high-level participant was used to flavor the details ... my guess is Fleischer or Rice. Reading between the pap, you realize how extraordinarily the account is tailored on one level to show an in-touch, tough-minded and human president. At the same time I was surprised at a portrait of a chief executive supremely unburdened by any qualities of deliberation or self-criticality. The book makes a point of illustating how Bush would ask "incisive" questions of his team, provoking analysis, etc., when in reality policy was being made by separate actors in his administration. On that score, notable in his absence as a prsence is Dick Cheney. Cheney was the man who actually seemed to be making policy, but in this book he's an unexamined, underreported player. Who knows if he is in fact the "gray cardinal" of the White House? His marked absence as a character is remarkable, in light of his primary role in setting policy... I could be overestimating his role, but this book doesn't help me. Instead, the reader is treated to the same puppet show of Defense vs. State, and even that is watered down (in the interests of ... the greater good of solidarity?) I long for the book that I know Woodward will never write, not as long as he enjoys cocktail party privileges in Georgetown. He'll never pull a Capote. The insider knowledge that Woodward has acquired, and the station to which he belongs, is enjoyed for its own sake. I suppose there's some enjoyment in being the unofficial hagiographer to the Washington elite.
Rating:
Summary: Once again, the point is not politics
Review: Bush at War had been intended as a book simply about the first one hundred days of the presidency of George W. Bush. It, as Woodward says in the end, was changed when foreign terrorists hijacked those planes and plunged into the World Trade Center towers. I posted my first review while reading the book, and now that I've finally finished reading, I thought I'd share further/final thoughts on the book. It's fascinating to learn all about the events that went on behind the scenes of our nation's leaders on that day that many of us remember all too well. Woodward interviewed many of the high-level, high-profile leaders, including Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, and even President Bush. Thus, this is probably the most accurate and detailed description available to the public today about the events of September 11th, and the following events. On the other hand, you'd think that reading about those events would be exciting. I'm sure the events that took place weren't exactly that electrifying, but the way it's put down on paper makes it seem quite dull and dry. And once the war in Afghanistan begins, it's a jumble of names and places within the Afghan region that is just too hard to keep up with, at least for the readers who aren't knowledgeable about the region. Still, it's a great refresher for what the chain of events were following that terrible day in September. For certain it's a great book to keep on the shelf and take down when you get old, and your grandkids ask you to tell them about what it was like to live through 9/11 and the war that followed. As I warned, however, in my previous review, this book does contain profanity, used by the higher-ups in stressful situations, including the term FUBAR. I read in another book that this term meant Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition, but . . . well, let's just say there was a less wholesome word in the F position. A few last notes. While the book was supposed to be about Bush, it did wind up being about how our nation as a WHOLE handled the war, as another reviewer pointed out. Second, this book is NOT about politics. It was about what happened after 9/11 in our nation's inner circle of commanders.
Rating:
Summary: An Extended Newspaper Column
Review: In _Bush at War,_ Bob Woodward has assembled an impressive account of the Bush Administration's reactions to the September 11th attacks. Based on a series of interviews with the principles, including the President, the book provides a number of fascinating details about how the administration chose to deal with the crisis. Internal politics, arguments, and the unexpected problems of the war all are brought to light. What Woodward fails to acknowledge, however, is that these accounts are all based on interviews, not from his actually being there. Even if human nature were not part of the equation, it's unlikely such recollections could be 100% accurate. When the fact that all of the people interviewed are members of a political administration that will be seeking reelection in a year, it's hard to believe they were fully candid with Woodward. What areas might have been over- or underemphasized cannot be known with any certainty, but it's probably safe to assume any major problems that would reflect poorly on the administration were not discussed as candidly as issues where the administration did well. Therefore, this work can hardly be considered the definitive work on the post-9/11 reactions of the Bush administration. That having been said, it is a fine read. Woodward's prose is clear and the work moves along rapidly from event to event. Descriptions are vivid, providing the illusion of the reader actually being present for the events being discussed. And while the reader is almost certainly not getting the whole story, the story provided includes enough details to cast a new light on the actions of the administration leading up to the Iraq War. Well worth a read.
Rating:
Summary: How Bush thinks
Review: Larry King was saying how this book is the best selling book of Woodword ever, that I just had to read it.even though I'm not a fan of Bush or his team (except maybe Colin Powell). I'm grateful to Woodword, that I now understand The administration roles (more or less, with the exception of the Vice President). but when it came to the President, it was too much to see him saying how a president should not do this, and the president's job is not to do that.. when he defined what he 'should' do. it wasn't very compatable with what he really did.
I also find the President, and his Defence Secretary's relationship with the media, rather unprofessional. i thought the media seeks people, not the other way around.
one more eye-opener, the people with less ranks seemed to make those historic decisions.
the book is an easy to read, very beautifully written, and I think I tolerated Bob Woodword's bias to the Administration.
Rating: 
Summary: The Inside World of Presidential Decision Making
Review: This is a book that all Americans should read if only to see how the Presidential decision making works. It has some good insights into the personalities of Bush and all of his cabinet. Sometimes President Bush seems heavy handed but again we may have had a lot too much diplomacy in the last years. This was an answer to an out and out act of war by terrorists and Bush's answer to it was quite a bit less violent than the answer to the last such act against the U.S.A. (Pearl Harbor) which had fewer casualties than the 9/11 tragedy. This is an in depth look at the meetings of the major decision makers other than Congress. It contains many quotes of how the cabinet and the president spoke of happenings and planning concerning the war against terrorism. It also shows how the media can affect public opinion in that people were becoming impatient to see some results because of the media agitation. Some were shouting that it was another quagmire like Viet Nam although it had only been a few weeks since the tragedy. The war in Afghanistan came together all at once and finished in a hurry afterward. The book was written before the second Iraq war and only contains a comparative few references to the problems with Iraq, although it is constantly on the minds of the principal people in the book. The author made a highly readable book with direct language and mostly fast moving narrative.
Rating:
Summary: Now America --- All of Us --- At War
Review: Woodward was allowed extensive access inside the Bush administration to obtain the material he discussed in this book. As usual, the book is well written. To understand why this appeared to many to be Bush's war, you have to read his provocative book. I feel, however, this is no longer Bush at war. This is now America at war. After reading "Bush at War", I strongly recommend you also read Norman Thomas Remick's "West Point: Character Leadership...Thomas Jefferson", a book that brings into clear focus who we are and where we come from as Americans in a way that helps you understand why the war on terrorism (homeland, Afganistan, Iraq, and what the future holds) has now become America --- all of us --- at war. Anyone who wants to know the practicals and philosophicals of why we fight should read both books.
Rating:
Summary: AWESOME READ -- ESPECIALLY NOW
Review: I always thought Woodward was a liberal, but not after reading this book. I really enjoyed it. It begins with the events of 911 and carries the reader through the war on terror in Afghanistan. Very interesting and readable. I blew threw it in a couple of days and wished there were much more. This book will give you confidence in the President whether you're a fan or not. One of Woodward's best works. I would have rated this a 5, but it left me wanting more. I really want part 2.
Rating:
Summary: The Inside Story
Review: If you are looking for what really happened in the conflict with Afghanistan, then you must read Bush at War. It shows what went on and how it all fell into place. Bob Woodward did a phenominal job of giving me the chance at what it feels like to be in the Oval Office for those 100 days after September 11. I felt like i was a part of the NSC and got a say. The book is a guide to what really went on behind closed doors and how what was done inside that room was followed out by those doing the fighting. A must read for the person who is an avid history follower or the person who just wants to know what is going on in our government today.
|
