The Skimmer

The War Within By Bob Woodward Simon & Schuster; 487 pages

"The President rarely was the voice of realism on the Iraq War," writes Bob Woodward near the end of The War Within, his fourth volume on George W. Bush. And after seven years of reporting on the President, Woodward may well have given us his culminating judgment. In his most measured behind-the-scenes look at the White House to date, Woodward stakes out a middle ground between 2002's hagiographic Bush at War and 2006's scalding State of Denial. While Denial seethes with a barely contained anger (mostly directed at Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld), The War Within closes its eyes and shakes its head slowly in resignation.

In 2006, it appeared as if there was no plan to succeed in Iraq. Though sectarian violence had spiked and political progress stalled, Bush forged ahead confidently with a policy that amounted to little more than "We must win." As Woodward writes, "No matter how he tried to dress it up with positive language and sugarcoat it to the American public, he was losing the war. But somehow he had no set deadlines, demanded no hurry." Eventually, Bush ceded the responsibility for a new strategy to National Security Adviser Steve Hadley, who pushed ahead with the idea of a troop surge despite a desire by almost everyone inside and outside the Administration to start withdrawing troops. It was policy through brute force--but it succeeded in reducing the violence.

As usual, Woodward empties his notebooks, delivering the delicious quotes ("I'm a Socratic Method person," says Bush) and analysis (Woodward claims the reduction in violence owes as much to covert operations against extremists as to the surge) that we've come to expect--and frankly, demand--from his work. A better first draft of history might be difficult to find.

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