Reading Bob Woodward

[babylonsister]

Reading Bob Woodward
posted by Robert Dreyfuss on 09/09/2008 @ 10:40am


Reading Bob Woodward's The War Within: A Secret White House History 2006-2008, is like reading raw transcripts of documents and interviews from a sensational murder trial: you know what happens, and you know who the victim and the perpetrator are. But to read their actual words is chilling. It's the In Cold Blood of national security journalism.

I read it last night, cover to cover. Yes, it's written in that frustrating Woodward style, with little or no attribution for much of what he writes. (He does provide sketchy footnotes, but they mostly say: "The information in this chapter comes primarily from background interviews with firsthand sources.")

Still, much of it is astonishing. And I don't just mean the juicy tidbits that Woodward gives us – that the United States spied on Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki, that a supersecret, high-tech assassination program killed large numbers of militants beginning in May, 2006, and so on. I'm talking about the dangerously sycophantic advisers surrounding Bush, the ones who stroked the ego of a know-nothing president as The Decider doubled-down on his failed war in Iraq. And I'm talking about the machinations of a rogue general named Jack Keane and his rump staff of strategists at the American Enterprise Institute who worked with Steve Hadley, the national security adviser, to promote the January, 2007, escalation called "the surge."

How's this for sycophantic? Here's Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice with Bush on the brink of ordering the surge, speaking to a man who most historians consider America's worst president, ever:

I think you probably have to do it. But this is going to be one of the most consequential decisions of all time. You are probably, because of the things you've chosen to do, one of the four or five most consequential presidents--maybe in our history, certainly in the last 100 years, but maybe in our history.

Or take Steve Hadley, who orchestrated the surge plan, on Bush's "greatness":

Those of us who are here believe in him. Believe in him and believe he has greatness. He has greatness in him. … This guy is really strong. And … we're strong because he's strong.

more...

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/dreyfuss/357371

[BridgeTheGap]

1. Scarey shit!!! n.t

[babylonsister]

2. I hear ya! nt

[flakey_foont]

3. Thanks for the info, Babylon Sister

geez..no wonder he is so delusional, if he has all those kisser-uppers constantly telling him he is the greatest thing since sliced bread.
"one of the 4 or 5 most consequential Presidents in history'?

yeah, I suppose for the negative impact he has had on this country.

[Doctor_J]

4. Scarier than the Nazis

Many of them knew that Hitler was batshit crazy and evil. Everyone around * is just as evil as he is.