Rating: 
Summary: A Great Beginning!
Review: Finally, a book that shows the ignorant left is starting to come around. Hopefully, we'll soon be rid of the sterile nonsense that has plagued American thought for over 40 years."To hell with naivete, and its most endearing progeny: the liberal fool!"
Rating:
Summary: A Great Beginning!
Review: Finally, a book that shows the ignorant left is starting to come around. Hopefully, we'll soon be rid of the sterile nonsense that has plagued the American intellect throughout the past 40 years. "To hell with naivete, and its most endearing progeny: the liberal fool!"
Rating: 
Summary: BOOKWEAVER
Review: This was a brilliant idea For a book, the writing was candid and humorous. The section on George W. 's 'guardduty" wink, wink, had me rolling. I was thoughly enthralled during the "pretzel story" . This book could keep me entertained for years.
Rating:
Summary: Thank God for President Bush
Review: Woodward's book is a lively and entertaining read. The picture of President Bush that emerges from all accounts is that of a decisive, intelligent, strong willed leader intent on WINNING the war on terrorism. The President's cabinet comes across generally well, although with a fondess for office politics. Some of the CIA stories in Afghanistan are eye popping. For example, a CIA operative offered an Afghan warlord fifty thousand in hundred dollar bills to back the Northern Alliance .... the warlord asked for 24 hours to consider ..... the CIA operative arranged for a B52 to drop a 500lb bomb right next to the warlord's headquarters as a 21st century version of a horse head in your bed.... the next day the CIA operative visits the warlord and offered him FORTY thousand in hundred dollars bills ..... and the warlord signed on the dotted line no questions asked. God it's good to know that our intelligence agencies still know how to play hardball with these fanatics despite having been hamstrung and persecuted by Clinton and other bleeding hearts in Congress. Considering Woodward's ever present liberal bias, this book paints an incredibly favorable portrait of our President. Thank God Almighty for giving us President Bush and not President Gore in this time of national peril!
Rating: 
Summary: Bush At Play
Review: The very title of this book is a joke on the American people. Woodward had nothing better to write about than this penny-loafered fratboy who could only play at war in his wildest imaginations? What happened on 9/11 is not war and what George Bush is doing is not waging war. He doesn't have a clue what war is. Bush has absolutely no understanding of history, or the realities of world politics, and 9/11 has taught him nothing other than how to grimace better, and walk more like a determined ape. If the American people eat everything fed to them by this imposter of a President along with his puppeteers, and so-called journalists like Woodward, we deserve everything coming to us. The Right is merely solidifying its hold on this country and Woodward stupidly serves their interests by making a hero of this dim bulb we call President. I would prefer a poodle as President (and that's an insult to poodles). If Orwell were alive, he would tell us unequivocably that 1984 is ensconced and well in America. He would laugh at a book like this. Woodward you should be ashamed of yourself (as you laugh all the way to the bank).
Rating:
Summary: an absolute must read
Review: Bob Woodward had access to all the important actors-George W Bush, Dick Cheney, Colin Powell, Candoleezza Rice, Don Rumsfeld, George Tenet and many others. Hence, Woodward gives the reader a real feel for the inner workings of the national security team. He covers in detail the period from 11 September 2001 to the end of the year and then the period from early August, 2002 until early October, 2002. Who comes out best? In order, President Bush, George Tenet, Colin Powell and Candi Rice. Woodward, who seems to have mellowed a bit in recent years, seems very impressed by the leadership abilities of George Bush. If Woodward misses something about Bush it is that Bush is very much a fighter pilot. Fast acting, decisive and self-confident. A few small errors detract only slightly from the book--Algeria is not the largest country in Africa. I called Woodward to point out a few errors--he called me back and seemed interested in my inputs. Finally, I would give it 5 stars except for the minor errors, my inability, at times, to figure out who was being quoted, the lack of a strategic context and the dearth of analysis.
Rating:
Summary: Many good insights, one major flaw
Review: Woodward's account of the Bush administration's Afghanistan policy provides detailed information on all the major players and their contributions to formulating an approach to the issue. It is interesting to see the contributions of and conflicts between Powell, Rumsfeld, and Rice. However, one crucial person is left out of the book: Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. envoy to Afghanistan and Presidential advisor for the region is not mentioned at any point by Woodward. This is bizarre since Khalilzad, himself of Afghan origin, is believed by most to have been the instrumental actor in the Afghan campaign, which is why he was subsequently appointed U.S. envoy. In fact, many argue that there was a complete lack of expertise on the subject other than that of Zalmay Khalilzad.
Khalilzad's absense suggests either a research flaw by Woodward and his team or a conscious effort to downplay Khalilzad's role in order to exaggerate the knowledge that Rice, Rumsfeld, Tenet, Powell, and others mentioned in the book had of Afghan issues.
Rating:
Summary: SPIRIT AND COURAGE
Review: Woodward gives us portraits of many people in this book, and most of them are good people: hard working, intelligent, and emotional. But, the book's title says it all: BUSH at war. President Bush is the hero of this story, whether Woodward intended for him to be the hero or not. Bush is also intelligent, hard working and emotional. However, he had the worst job of anyone involved in the aftermath of the terrorist attack on America. He showed more than intelligence. He showed intellectual courage. He made decisions and stuck to them, even when his advisors were trying to move in different directions. He cut through the confusion and anger and fear and made hard choices. He showed the entire world what America's leadership was made of: Determination and guts.
Woodward's writing is splendid. It speeds you along through the days after the attack. The words and actions of Bush and his deputies are heartening and, sometimes, inspiring.
The close-up of Bush's spontaneous response to the rescue worker at the World Trade Center is almost worth the price of this book by itself. You want to know what George Bush did and said in private and compare that to what he did in public? You want to decide if the man we just barely elected president deserves the job? Read this book. It's a great place to start your research.
Rating: 
Summary: Wait for the paperback, if at all
Review: In the past, I have always found Bob Woodward's book to be entertaining. I mean, sure he cranks out a book every year or so about whatever happens to be going on in the country, from John Belushi to the FED. But he is a decent, and sometimes very good, writer. His insight into the Clinton Administration in The Agenda, for example, has not been equaled. And then there are the classic Nixon books, All the President's Men and The Final Days. With all of that in mind, I looked forward to his take on Bush and 9/11, particularly because it promised to be an unbiased account. The result was a rather dull, uninspired work. There is a lot of valuable information; I particularly enjoyed the description of George Tenet, the CIA director (and a holdover from the Clinton administration) whom I knew nothing about. However, the really interesting characters, like Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell, and Dick Cheney seem cardboard. While there are many interesting anecdotes about each of them, none come alive from the page like they should. This is particularly true of Rumsfeld, whom I find to be a fascinating individual, worthy of his own biography, perhaps. The story is the same with the president himself. It might be because of the extensive news coverage, but all the stories in the early part of the book are nothing new. That, in my opinion, speaks for the whole book. The parts about the CIA might be worth the price of the paperback, but I understand Fighting Back, by Bill Sammons, to be a much livelier work, even if it is a little biased.
Rating: 
Summary: Standard, Uncritical Kid-Glove Treatment of Bush....
Review: This book was a complete disappointment -- although I don't know why I should have expected anything else. Woodward offers NO real investigation, NO real depth, and NO real insight into an administration that has so diligently shrouded itself in secrecy (while so effectively engaging in new heights of deception). It doesn't surprise me in the least that Woodward was given full access to the Whitehouse, since this book offers little beyond the unsubstantive "rah-rah" pro-Bush cheerleading that the mainstream media has been engaging in since Bush took office (Ari Fleisher and his minions in the Whitehouse Press office could have written this book themselves!). Although Woodward is certainly a talented writer, this book is little more than pro-Bush P.R. and spin. Uncritical fans of George W. Bush will love this little "novel"; others may want to look elswhere for a more substantive and realistic glimpse into the methods and motivations of the current president (I recommend Molly Ivin's SHRUB -- a book that every truly patriotic American ought to read).
|
