Mismangement of War? State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III - by Bob Woodward

State of Denial by Bob Woodward is a meticulously written account beginning, in December of 2000, with Donald Rumsfeld’s appointment as Secretary of Defense and continues to chronicle events of the Bush Administration’s mishandling of both the invasion and occupation of Iraq. At the beginning of the war Bob Woodward admits he was a staunch supporter of the current administration and only recognized his error in supporting the Iraq invasion after the majority of intelligent American’s had already awoken to the incompetence or sinister intentions of the men behind the war. State of Denial is about those missteps So while Mr. Woodward’s research appears impeccable and his writing style is easy to read I cannot help but question if he is truly on the side of the United States public or just on, whichever side tends to be in the majority.

Apart from my personal feelings about the man, however, Woodward does give the reader some useful facts beginning with how the war began when support for it was garnered by President Bush when he intentionally deceived the U. S. public into believing that they had much to fear from the small country of Iraq. While successfully getting this point across Woodward further illustrates for the reader how the current administration is saddled with an intellectually uncurious president, a micromanaging Secretary of Defense, interagency infighting, and the overall lack of honest introspection about what mistakes occurred in the handling of the Middle East situation as a whole. Surprisingly though Woodward doesn’t lay the major blame at the President’s feet but rather chooses to cast Donald Rumsfeld as the piece’s villain, portraying him as the puppet master behind the president, whose distrust for the military caused him to ignore their concerns.

The President’s dependence on Rumsfeld is shown throughout the book as he is seen to be unwilling to make any adjustments to the war policy, including the number of troops deployed or to rid himself of Rumsfeld even when grave concerns surfaced regarding Rumsfeld’s policies as expressed by White House Chief of Staff, Andrew Card. The book even portrays Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice as ineffective, chiefly because their concerns and thoughts were silenced by other more powerful members of the Bush Administration.  It must be noted, however, that Woodward does not go out of his way to prove that those behind the Iraq War deliberately mislead the country only that they ignored any evidence to the contrary only changing their rhetoric when their assumptions were challenged.

State of Denial the conclusion of Woodward’s remarkable trilogy readdresses many of the events visited in the first two books, updating them according to the latest information, making it a good summation for those readers who don’t have the time to read the previous two.  I also found this book to be a good insight on what “not” to do given that Woodward has written a very convincing narrative graphically illustrating how the Bush Whitehouse bungled the war in Iraq and showing how Iraq has become the perfect outline for the multiple incompetence’s of leadership within the White House. The most depressing line in this excellent book was the last sentence: “With all Bush’s upbeat talk and optimism, he had not told the American public the truth about what Iraq had become.” In 2007 he has still not leveled with the American people and his Secretary of State appears neither willing nor able to suggest diplomatic solutions to this debacle called Iraq. That leaves me with one critical question I found myself asking: how can people who are considered the most knowledgeable, most experienced, and smartest, be so incompetent? So if you want to find out what is behind the war in Iraq this novel may be for you.

To find other books or material on the Iraq war and the Middle East Conflict take advantage of your Google search engine.

[tags]book review, State of Denial, Bob Woodward, Iraq War, Bush Administration, Mishandling,[/tags]