The War Within, A Secret White House History by Bob Woodward; 2008; Simon & Schuster, New York, NY; 487 pages; 978-4165-5897-2; 2/24/09-3/3/09

‘”But the inner circle of the administration seemed to have shielded itself from bold new ideas, ‘those on the outside weren’t breaking through.’” page 56

General Casey said “More U.S. troops can help briefly , but the city is huge…Baghdad is a troop sump.”  page 215

This read alot like Dereliction of Duty, about LBJ, Robert McNamara and the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the lies that led us deeper into the Vietnam War.  Dubya had made up his mind about what was going to happen and wouldn’t listen to anyone who offered a proposal that didn’t equal victory, although Dubya or anyone else in his cabinet could really articulate what that meant or how that was to be achieved.  The generals that were on the ground wanted to believe that they were doing the job they had been asked to do and so painted the results with the brightest colors they could.  Dubya seemed to be back in the sixties constantly wanting to know what the body count was as if that somehow made a difference.  Many people kept telling him it wasn’t a matter of how many insurgents were killed but what was going on with the new government.  The government at first was very sectarian and encouraged violence against their opponents.  It will be a very long time before there is peace in Iraq, there are multiple religious, ethnic and tribal groups who want power there.  These are groups that have been fighting one another for years, hundreds of years, this conflict will not be settled shortly.  Just as LBJ, McNamara and the JCS were condemned by their own words in memos that have now been declassified, Dubya and members of his cabinet are condemmed by the own words in the interviews they gave Bob Woodward.  One of the interesting things about this book and Derelection of Duty, is that the author of that book, Colonel McMaster is one of the supporting characters in this book.  RRRR