Rating: 
Summary: *A Statement of Conscience: Not In Our Name*
Review: "In our name, the government has brought down a pall of repression over society. The President's spokesperson warns people to 'watch what they say.' Dissident artists, intellectuals, and professors find their views distorted, attacked, and suppressed. The so-called USA PATRIOT Act ' along with a host of similar measures on the state level ' gives police sweeping new powers of search and seizure, supervised if at all by secret proceedings before secret courts. "In our name, the Bush administration, with near unanimity from Congress, not only attacked Afghanistan but arrogated to itself and its allies the right to rain down military force anywhere and anytime. The brutal repercussions have been felt from the Philippines to Palestine, where Israeli tanks and bulldozers have left a terrible trail of death and destruction. The government now openly prepares to wage all-out war on Iraq ' a country which has no connection to the horror of September 11. What kind of world will this become if the U.S. government has a blank check to drop commandos, assassins, and bombs wherever it wants?" "W" and his minions are criminals. I warn everyone to be wary of everything they read, hear, and watch. (And, yes, that includes this statement.) It is always important to understand the true motives behind any act...especially the acts of greedy, belligerent, power hungry fools with an apparent lack of regard for the six billion lives their decisions affect. "We too watched with shock the horrific events of September 11, 2001, but the mourning had barely begun, when the highest leaders of the land unleashed a spirit of revenge putting out a simplistic script of 'good vs. evil'."
Rating: 
Summary: Intelligent and informative
Review: This book is intelligent and informative. It is also interesting to note that almost every negative review on this book is full of spelling and/or grammatical errors. It is amazing how quickly some folks will criticize our President when they can't even form a simple sentence correctly. As for the negative reviews on this book, take it from where it comes.
Rating: 
Summary: An Objective Account Executive Action
Review: Woodward' account of the post 9/11 crisis, the road to war with Afghanistan and an eventual commentary on an impending Iraq conflict is fluid and informative. For those skeptical of GW Bush, his executive ablities and whether he is "up to the task" this book provides an unbias documentary of the inner functions of the president and his war cabinet. It covers in depth daily NSC meetings, previous undisclosed information, political personalities, relationships, and the overall tone and focus of the White House on its cautious road to war. What I found most surprising was Bush's careful expression and delegation of proper and effective authority; probably his most valuable trait. And secondly the non-dominance of "Hawks" Rumsfeld and Cheney, and the complete absence of Karl Rove from any War Council proceedings. While not a riveting page turner, the book is a must for political junkees, for anyone interested in the active function of the executive branch in time of crisis, and for anyone with previous doubts on Bush' ability to lead effectively.
Rating:
Summary: Set politics aside -- this is great reporting
Review: Many of the reviews posted here say more about the reviewer's politics than they do about the book. Ignore them. What makes this work so compelling is that it provides genuine insight into the workings of our government. Rarely is such access available while an administration is still in power, and the war itself still unfolding. Some reviewers have criticized the book for the level of detail it provides in, for example, covering what was actually said in NSC meetings. But I think that's essential. We all know the outcome; the interesting bit is learning how and why the administration made the decisions it did. Too often history is presented as a neat little story with a bow on top. Here we see history as it is actually made: with incomplete information, conflicting views, unprepared agencies, foreign nations both helping and seeking advantage, and all the other messy details of the real world. Woodward makes all this tension and uncertainty come alive. I do have one complaint, though. The people who gave Woodward interviews (Bush, Powell, Rice, Tenet) consistently fared better than those who did not (Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz). To some extent that's inevitable -- if you won't tell your own story, someone else will tell it for you, and less charitably. But one gets the impression that Woodward has it in for Rumsfeld. The book portrays him as consistently unprepared and uninformed, in contravention to everything else I've read about him. One wonders: has Woodward exposed Rumsfeld as a Wizard of Oz, or is he just nursing some personal grudge? It's hard to tell. The surprise winner in this tale is CIA Director George Tenet, who seems always to have ideas, information, and options at the ready. This is in sharp contrast to the Pentagon, which was alarmingly unprepared for action. Overall, the book is an incredibly gripping, engaging story of what actually happened in the immediate aftermath of 9/11.
Rating:
Summary: Recipe: some of the story, with seasoning for a better taste
Review: Seasoning disguises the true state of the sometimes rotten ingredients. Well worth reading BUT keep in mind that with this highly secretive administration Woodward has made a smooth transition from 'investigative journalist' of Nixon to "Court historian" for Bush. Courts tend to surround themselves only with those who generally agree and to permit only chroniclers who do so as well. Sadly, it may have been necessary to get even this version of the story.
Rating: 
Summary: Bob Woodward, Insider
Review: Bob Woodward, despite the great feats he achieved of the past, is nothing now but your typical Washington insider, someone who will write an uncritical piece about someone in order to gain their confidence, and the hopes that this person will help him out in the future (i.e. more interviews). The problem with Woodward is that he panders to the Bush administration too much in this book. While an overall account of the 100 days following the September 11 attacks, Woodward ultimately just does that, writes an account. Many times throughout the book he speaks of his resolve to be completely objective, a statement that becomes oppressive. While as a journalist he is held to the standard of an unbiased report (which he departs from many times), Woodward glosses over too many sections of the story to make this book worthwhile. In helping Woodward write the book, the White House provided him with nearly fifty sets of notes from National Security Council meetings. You could say that is a good thing, but when you take into account that this is the same White House that has used "executive privelege" to hide the members of Mr. Cheney's CEO-rich Energy Board from CONGRESS. Think about it...Woodward (a reporter), recieves reports that were denied to Congress. The book falls short also because it focuses on the first 100 days after the attacks, before the "War on Terrorism" stalled and Iraq took center stage. However, the worst part about the book is that it does not cover many things that would be seen as being sensitive to the White House. Nothing of anthrax is mentioned (the fact that no one was ever arrested, and that the main suspect, Steven Hatfill, was not investigated until many months after the spores started showing up). Equally absent are John Ashcroft's mass round ups of any Arab that looked suspicious (the fact that not one terrorist was found is equally absent). The vastly important battle at Tora Bora recieves less than a page, although this is the battle where over 1000 al Qaeda (and many suspect bin Laden) escaped to Packistan. This major setback recieves very minor attention. Usually, the only setbacks shown are where they are overcome. Mostly, the book only focuses on what went right, something that the Bush administration is all to happy to encourage. Woodward tries to portray that he is the same Watergate guy of the 1970s, but success had taken its tool. He is now just an ordinary reporter (although a famous one), who writes what the interviewer wants him to write, and then veil it as being an investigate account.
Rating: 
Summary: Bush at War
Review: When I first read that the Washington Post had donated [money]... to George H.W. Bush's presidential campaign, I began to wonder if a friend of mine had not been correct in his Watergate conclusions; My friend thought Deep Throat was none other than George Bush, who even away back then (the late 1970s) appeared to have a hunger for catapaulting from the CIA into the White House. Woodward seems to be up to his old tricks -- revealing information without naming the source, just as I have done with "my friend."
Rating:
Summary: Unbelievingly Disappointing
Review: This was more like 400-pages of transcripts, recordings, and notes which were drier than a piece of beef jerky. It seemed as though this talented writer was exorted to write this book. Where is the passion? Where are the personal views on how this "War" is being handled? I've read 104 pages of redundancy and am critically debating on suffering through another 300 pages. I must say though, the actual book itself, is aestheticly pleasing. I guess that is why they say not to judge a book by its cover.
Rating:
Summary: A shameful exercise
Review: There is nothing here that an close newspaper reader did not know or surmise. What is missing is any mention of why Bush and his geniuses lost the first round of the war in Afganistan because they did not want to lose Americvan citizens' support by taking real casualities at Bora Bora. Or how about the confusion and anxiety of the American people when their leader ran and hid for a day after the attack.It was as if Roosevelt disappeared after Pearl Harbor. What Woodward skips over reveals he his a bag man for the cowards in the White House.
Rating:
Summary: Not Only Bush At War, All Of Us At War
Review: Five stars for being well written. But, this is not Bush at war. This is us, all of us, at war. Iraq is only the second "battle". We'll be at war long after Bush is out of office, unless we stupidly allow terrorists a shocking David-vs-Goliath victory over us by letting them "wipe us" with bio-weapons or dirty-nukes obtained from Iraq, and/or others. Those who the American and British governments have identified as out to get us hate America and Americans because they hate what they perceive we are all about. Unfortunately for us, their perceptions are wrong. If only they were reading this review, I could urge them to read a book that enlightens them on the truth of what America is REALLY all about. Perhaps they would see the error of their ways, and this could be resolved peacefully. Recommended: "West Point: Character Leadership Education, A Book Developed From The Readings And Writings Of Thomas Jefferson" by Norman Thomas Remick, a book that enlightens the reader on what America is really all about.
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