State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III

State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III Bob Woodward Date: 2006-09-30   —   Book product page Rating:

In each book I read, I try to find a passage that sums it up. There's one such spot in Woodward's latest book where a high-ranking Pentagon official, referring to the Bush administration, says he's "never seen a group of people less able to advance their own interests."

In "State of Denial", Woodward takes us inside the White House and the Pentagon, through official documents and interviews with the principals, to find out just how the hell things went so wrong in Iraq. It's a story of hubris and incompetence and I had a hard time putting it down. It's like watching a train wreck in slow motion, except it involves the destruction and twisting of tens of thousands of lives both in Iraq and here at home.

In Woodward's previous two books, he covers the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq fairly dispassionately. As far as making judgments, you get out of them what you bring with you -- although you end up much better informed. In this book, Woodward injects some of his own judgment even as he continues to give everyone involved a chance to tell their side of the story. The judgment, of course, is summed up in the title of the book: The Bush administration was -- and is still -- in a state of denial about Iraq.

I'm not going to give a synopsis of the whole book, but the one thing that really struck me -- even though this is a place were Woodward is meticulously impartial in relating the story -- is the disastrous lack of leadership skill on the part of President Bush. Bush makes decrees, but then never follows up on them. He allows problems to fester until they blow up into huge problems. He doesn't stay on top of what's going on in Iraq even though he realizes it's the single most important issue in his presidency, and he doesn't stay on top of what his own team is doing.

Over and over in interviews with all he major players, Woodward asks whether President Bush followed up on anything and invariably, the answer is no. President Bush is singularly incurious about anything that happens after he issues an order until it becomes a crisis -- and then everyone goes into political damage control rather than trying to fix the problem.

Once again, Woodward does America an invaluable service by chronicling the White House and Pentagon during the occupation of Iraq. Whether you're a Democrat or Republican or whatever, you owe it to yourself and your country to become an informed citizen and find out what happened. Read the book.

tags: woodward  state of denial