The War Within: A Secret White House History 2006-2008

Military Review, Jan-Feb, 2009 by Arthur Bilodeau

THE WAR WITHIN: A Secret White House History 2006-2008, Bob Woodward, Simon & Schuster, New York, 2008, 512 pages, $32.00.

The War Within, the fourth and final installment of Bob Woodward's chronicle of the Bush administration at war, seems superfluous. Much of this isn't Woodward's fault: the war that caused the war within the administration has been shoved aside by a financial crash, a historic presidential campaign, and, ironically, the surge's success. There's emotional fatigue to blame too. After five years of the kind of lethal fumbling described by Michael Gordon, Tom Ricks, and Rajiv Chandrasekaran, many of us are glad just to take the current good news, fragile though it may be, and relegate Iraq to the back burner. Who wants to read, yet again, about impotent national leadership and earnest but often fruitless warfighting?

But, of course, there's still some curiosity to be sated, a record to be finalized. Could Bush, whose sum knowledge of warfare often seemed to be that "it's hard work," really be so vacuous? According to Woodward, who had unparalleled access to the president, the answer is yes. Bush fixated on body counts--on "killin' 'em." In lieu of a strategy, he concocted such nonsense as, "The word that captures what we want to achieve is victory." Far from being "The Decider," he was decidedly a spectator, even about the surge, which his national security advisor formulated without any guidance from him. The catalogue of presidential dysfunction is lengthy: Bush cowed advisors, had no sense of urgency, couldn't focus on key briefings, spurned analysis in favor of instinct, and failed to see neon signs of catastrophe. The president, whom Woodward praised fulsomely in his first volume, now resembles Doonesbury's empty-helmeted caricature. As the latter might suggest, most of Woodward's assessments don't qualify as insights, but to hear them frequently corroborated by Bush's own words is worth the reading time.

MR's readers might be more interested in Woodward's take on the generals and other military players prominent between 2005 and 2008. Petraeus aside, the four-star cadre doesn't come off particularly well. Casey is earnest but befuddled, Pace a water boy, Schoomaker and the other chiefs disregarded and bitter. There are the usual accolades for H.R. McMaster and genuine admiration for the estimable Petraeus.

(The Times's reviewer opined that Woodward has a "man-crush" on the general.) But again, there's not a lot of insight here: Woodward reprises McMaster's superb work at Tal Afar, and for the umpteenth time we hear about Petraeus's physical fitness, Princeton degree, saving by Frist, etc. What readers outside the Beltway might find new is the crucial role played by a retired general, Jack Keane, in turning the war around. Suffice it to say that Americans should be very grateful that all old Soldiers don't just fade away--especially those who can see through the smoke and report back that there's fire.

Unless your reading budget is large or your name appears in the book, I'm not sure I'd recommend buying The War Within. In addition to its born-old mien, the book is slow reading. Woodward piles up a mountain of detail, but not all of it is relevant; his style is clunky when not strictly prosaic ("Iraqi society ... was stretched to the breaking point and on the precipice of coming apart"), and what are featured as significant events--e.g., convening of the "Council of Colonels," a collection of the military's brightest un-starred minds--don't go anywhere. Still, as a compendium of who-thought-and-did-what in the last three years of the war, this book has real value. It will be in every library in the land, and in multiple copies. I'd read it there.

LTC Arthur Bilodeau, USA, Retired, Ph.D., Louisville, Kentucky