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Bush at War | 
 enlarge | Author: Bob Woodward
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Category: Book
List Price: $28.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  222 reviews
Sales Rank: 147790
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 400
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.4 x 1.2
ISBN: 0743204735
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.931
EAN: 9780743204736
ASIN: 0743204735
Publication Date: November 19, 2002
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Amazon.com Review
Bush at War focuses on the three months following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, during which the U.S. prepared for war in Afghanistan, took steps toward a preemptive strike against Iraq, intensified homeland defense, and began a well-funded CIA covert war against terrorism around the world. The narrative is classic Woodward: using his inside access to the major players, he offers a nearly day-by-day account of the decision-making processes and power battles behind the headlines. Woodward's information is based on tape-recorded interviews of over a hundred sources (some unnamed), including four hours of exclusive interviews with the president, along with notes from cabinet meetings and access to some classified reports. Woodward's analysis of President Bush's leadership style is especially fascinating. A self-described "gut player" who relies heavily on instinct, Bush comes across as a man of action continually pressing his cabinet for concrete results. The revelation that the president developed and publicly stated the so-called Bush Doctrine--the policy that the U.S. would not only go after terrorists everywhere but also those governments or groups which harbor them--without first consulting Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Colin Powell, or Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is particularly telling. Other principals are examined with equal scrutiny. Though National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice emerges as soft-spoken and even tentative during group meetings, it becomes clear that Bush is dependent on her for candid advice as well as for conveying his thoughts to his cabinet. The relationship between Powell and Rumsfeld (and to a lesser degree Powell and Cheney) is often strained, exposing their differences regarding how to deal with Iraq and whether coalition building or unilateralism is most appropriate. Woodward also describes how CIA director George Tenet prepared a paramilitary team to infiltrate Afghanistan to set the groundwork for invasion, and how this ushered in a new era of cooperation between the defense department and the CIA. A worthwhile and often enlightening read, this is a revealing and informative first draft of the Bush legacy. --Shawn Carkonen
Product Description
With his unmatched investigative skill, Bob Woodward tells the behind-the-scenes story of how President George W. Bush and his top national security advisers, after the initial shock of the September 11 attacks, led the nation to war. Extensive quotations from the secret deliberations of the National Security Council -- and firsthand revelations of the private thoughts, concerns and fears of the president and his war cabinet -- make Bush at War an unprecedented chronicle of a modern presidency in time of grave crisis. Based on interviews with more than a hundred sources and four hours of exclusive interviews with the president, Bush at War reveals Bush's sweeping, almost grandiose, vision for remaking the world. "I'm not a textbook player, I'm a gut player," the president said. Woodward's virtual wiretap into the White House Situation Room reveals a stunning group portrait of an untested president and his advisers, three of whom might themselves have made it to the presidency. Vice President Dick Cheney, taciturn but hard-line, always pressing for more urgency in Afghanistan and toward Iraq. Secretary of State Colin Powell, the cautious diplomat and loyal soldier, tasked with building an international coalition in an administration prone to unilateralism. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the brainy agitator and media star who led the military through Afghanistan and, he hopes, through Iraq. National security adviser Condoleezza Rice, the ever-present troubleshooter who surprisingly emerges as perhaps the president's most important adviser. Bush at War includes a vivid portrait of CIA director George Tenet, ready and eager for covert action against terrorists in Afghanistan and worldwide. It follows a CIA paramilitary team leader on a covert mission inside Afghanistan to pay off assets and buy friends with millions in U.S. currency carried in giant suitcases. In Bush at War, Bob Woodward once again delivers a reporting tour de force.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 217 more reviews...
 First Rough Draft of History September 15, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I suppose you can draw whatever conclusions you want from Mr. Woodward's "Bush At War" depending on your political slant. For those considering the book, I ask you to look at it impartially - it is a fascinating study into presidential decision making, and can be considered a primary source for research purposes. The decision making portrayed here are those of President Bush, and despite attacks from either end of the spectrum directed at Mr. Woodward, he has, as always, turned a reporter's eye to the sequence of events that led to the decision to go to war in Afghanistan.
I read this book twice - once when I first bought it when it was published, and recently. The hindsight history provides us made it read like two different books. What we see is a president not at all aloof, detached, or non-informed about the affaris of his government, but a resolute wartime leader setting the course for the future of the war on terror. From there you can draw your own conclusions - we have the "with us or against us" policy in the days after 9/11, which at the time seemed an approporiate, passionate, and emotional response to the tragedy. That policy in microcosm was exactly the correct policy as it pertianed to Pakistan in the days after 9/11, for example, but its broad application to other world events (Iraq, as we were soon to find out) was to prove much more difficult. We also see the inner workings of Bush's inner circle, the War Cabinet.
Mr. Woodward's book does not read like a novel - sometimes you feel that he is reprinting a transcript of the meetings right after they happened. This, while at times difficult to maintian attention to, is exactly the service he has provided - a first-hand account of events and decisions as they were made, without filter. The conclusions he reaches are based on those accounts, and are not partisan. He calls it like he sees it. His thorough research and interviews, many with the president himself, have to be seen as more authoritative than the views of any pundit.
I'm looking forward to Mr. Woodward's other books in the "Bush At War" series. My challenge to myself and to the rest of you is to stop seeing this topic through partisan lenses and begin to take Mr. Woodward's contributions here as the narrative of history as it was made. We will all be more informed and better citizens as a result.
 Hollow Gossip with a Neo-Conservative Echo April 11, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
For those who give any credibility to Bush and his Neo-Conservative Administration, this will be an enjoyable dosage of literary pornography-you will be informed on nothing you are not already aware of, but may be provided with a warm feeling of admiration for those you consider to be decisive heroes.
For the rest of us, who are now only too aware that the war in Afghanistan was a pitiful necessity for the Bush Administration, and who understand that the primary focus was constantly on Iraq, this will be a rather odious insight into the credulity that passes for journalism.
Beginning with the collapse of the Twin Towers, the book traces, in an exceedingly obtuse manner, the proceedings of Bush's War Cabinet in planning of Afghanistan, the `war on terror', and ultimately Iraq. Despite the notion of journalistic impartiality, these events are recounted in a manner extremely sympathetic to the Bush Administration, attempting to portray this racket of truth-fiddlers as courageous and altruistic. Constructed as a novel, the reader is invited to read the discussions and debates between members of the War Cabinet, eventually leading to their decision. Considering the information was gathered by Woodward from interviews with members of the War Cabinet, one is hardly going to receive unbiased depiction of these meeting.
If one wishes to learn about how the members of a truly deceitful organization perceive themselves, then look no further than this. For those wishing to read an account of the path to war, from a realistic perspective, I would suggest looking elsewhere.
 Matter-of-fact Transcript of First 100 Days February 28, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book is not an opinion piece--it's nearly a minute-by-minute matter-of-fact transcript of what transpired in the Bush administration in the first 100 days after 9/11, up to the capture of Kabul.
There are no sweeping judgments here, just the facts, in an accessible and readable style. If you're after a wholesale condemnation of the Bush administration, this book won't satisfy you. But if you want a kind of step-by-step chronology of what happened and when, with explanations along the way, I don't know of a better source.
 Wish he had turned his notes over to a real historian November 24, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
The book recounts the basic events that we've all read in the newspapers at greater detail and while adding some original information based on meeting transcripts and interviews. The main thing we get is some sense of the personalities and their struggles amongst themselves and to deal with events. But we still don't get a GOOD look at them, that really gives deep insights.
The reportorial style does a disservice to the story. We get neither insightful analysis NOR detailed sourced history. Also, it seems that Woodward used co-authors but did not give them a byline. In addition, it seems that Woodward had different access from different people and in different areas and it's hard not to think that this has affected his slant and his ability to capture what really happened of interest.
It's not that this thing is a complete mess. It's readable. It's about something important. But I kept wishing that I had gotten a better book.
Bob Woodward- Administration stenographer August 23, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
"Bush at War" takes us inside the Bush Cabinet's decision making process after the 9/11 attacks. It's a fascinating look at how and why the Emperor and his paladins (Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Powell, et al)decided to do what they did...if this account is true. This book is not investigative journalism or a legitimate history. It makes no attempt to provide a broader picture of events or verify the assertions made by the subjects being interviewed. In a surprising and disappointing role for the man who brought down Nixon, Bob Woodward plays the part of obedient scribe, unquestioningly taking down the retrospective accounts of the Administration's VIPs. Basically, "Bush at War" is a book-length and better-written version of the New York Post.
While I question the value of reading such a one-sided account, and the propriety of a journalist acting as stenographer for such one-sided accounts, I don't necessarily think the book is a complete snowjob. After all, it deals with relatively noncontroversial events that few would have much cause to lie about. After all, there was almost universal consent for the overthrow of the Taliban and the invasion of Afghanistan. So, if you enjoy reading about high level meetings, the technical details of how the Administration supported the Northern Alliance or decided on its war strategy, then I think you can put a lot of credence in this book, even if its uncritical report forces you to take it with a grain of salt. One aspect that piqued my personal skepticism though is the disconnect between the bumbling frat boy Bush we see on the news every night, who has incompetently mismanaged our government for 7 years and who has not yet mastered the English language, and this book's portrayal of a President who was humble and mindful of the limitations of his foreign policy and military experience, whose understanding of problems was subtle and keen, and who chaired these war meetings with authority and intelligence. Decide for yourself whether to believe this book or your own eyes and 7 years of the public record. In any case, the book doesn't deal with the important issues that are at the heart of widespread accusations of incompetence and malfeasance against this Administration: namely the failure to prevent the 9/11 attacks, despite myriad warnings and indications, and the neoconservative manipulation and invention of intelligence to justify the war against Iraq.
To be sure, Woodward tells us that people like Wolfowitz and Cheney were pushing to attack Iraq along with Afghanistan in the days after 9/11, but that's hardly a revelation. It was well known that the neoconservative cult was publicly calling for war on Iraq throughout the 1990s. What was even more interesting was Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill's assertion, in his own book, that Bush was planning for war with Iraq from the first days of his_administration_. In any case, "Bush at War" tells us that the President overruled his neocons and put Iraq on the back burner_for the moment_. What was surprising, and disgusting, was that even people like Powell, who were opposed to any attack on Iraq, merely tabled the Iraq War for tactical reasons (e.g. it would hurt the Coalition, let's deal with one enemy at a time, etc.) rather than openly opposed it because of its inherent insanity and injustice. That kind of pusillanimous dissent perfectly captures the character of the good soldier Powell and other Bush loyalists, who preferred to serve their President rather than their nation.
My opinion of the value of this book is on the low side of the scale, but if you must read it, supplement it with books that will give you a larger picture of the America that Bush created.
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