Plan of Attack [ebook]

The 2003 American invasion of Iraq was contentious, not just in the
arena of global public opinion, but within the tight-lipped world of the
George W. Bush White House. As Bob Woodward reveals in Plan of Attack,
Vice-President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld were
part of a group leading the charge to war while Secretary of State Colin
Powell, General Tommy Franks, and others actively questioned the plan to
invade a country that had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks while war
in Afghanistan was still being waged.

Woodward gained extensive access to dozens of key figures and enjoyed
hours of direct contact with the President himself (more time,
seemingly, than former Bush administration officials Richard Clarke and
Paul O'Neill claim to have had). As a result, he's able to cite the kind
of gossip you won't find in a White House press release:

Franks calls Pentagon official Douglas Feith "the f*cking stupidest guy
on the face of the earth," Powell shares his alarm over how the cautious
Cheney of the first Bush administration had transformed into a zealot,
and Saudi Ambassador Prince Bandar seems to enjoy significantly more
entrée and influence than most anyone would have thought.

Bush is shown as a man intent on toppling Saddam Hussein in the
immediate aftermath of 9/11 and never really wavering in his decision
despite offering hints that non-military solutions could be achieved.
Light is also shed on CIA director George Tenet, who insists that the
evidence that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction was "a slam dunk"
only to later admit that his intelligence was flawed when months of
post-war searches turned up nothing. But the most interesting character
is Powell.

A former soldier himself, who finds himself increasingly at odds with
the agenda of the administration, Powell rejects evidence on WMDs that
he sees as spurious but ultimately endorses the invasion effort,
apparently out of duty. Upon its publication, the Bush administration
roundly denied many of the accounts in the book that demonstrated
conflict within their circles, poor judgment, or lousy planning, but the
Bush/Cheney reelection campaign nonetheless listed Plan of Attack as
recommended reading. And it is. It shows alarming problems in the way
the war was conceived and planned, but it also demonstrates the
tremendous conviction and dedication of the people who decided to carry
it out.

Plan of Attack
By Bob Woodward
Simon & Schuster
Pages: 480
2004-10
ISBN: 0743255488
1.72 MB
pdf

Download: 1.72 MB