The real war

As violence in Iraq reached alarming levels in 2006, a second war front erupted within the high echelons of the Bush administration. Bob Woodward takes readers deep into the tensions, secret debates, unofficial backroom dealings, mistrust, and determination inside the White House, the Pentagon, the State Department, secret agencies, and the American headquarters in Iraq. With unparalleled precision and detail, this superb account of a president at war describes the period of nerves and uncertainty within the American government from 2006 to mid-2008.
The White House launches a renewed strategy that excludes the military. General George Casey, the commander in Iraq, believes President Bush does not understand the war and concludes he has lost the president's confidence. The Joint Chiefs of Staff also pursue a secret strategy that leads nowhere. On the verge of revolt, they worry that the military will be blamed for the failure in Iraq.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice vehemently opposes sending more troops to Iraq and confronts the president, who responds that her opposition will lead to defeat. The president withholds from Vice President Dick Cheney the decision to dismiss Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld until two days before announcing it. A retired army general uses his high-level contacts to make decisions about the war, while Bush and Cheney use him to convey sensitive messages outside the chain of command.
For months, the administration's strategy remains secret, without a deadline and without haste, partly because making it public could affect Republicans in the 2006 elections. National Security Advisor Stephen J. Hadley tells Rice, "We need to stay under the radar because the election campaign is hot."
Woodward interviewed key figures, obtained dozens of never-before-published documents, and has exclusive interviews with President Bush that total nearly three hours. The result is a disturbing account that begins in 2006, when the White House realizes that the strategy in Iraq is not working, through the decision to send 30,000 more soldiers in 2007, until 2008, when the war becomes awkward in the presidential campaign.
The War Within raises pertinent questions about leadership, not just in war but in how we are governed and the dangers of unjustified secrecy.