I listened to 60 Minutes Sunday (CBS) and to Larry King Live (CNN) last night. Both programs had Bob Woodward who's book "War Within" was just released (ordered it from Amazon moments ago).
Bob Woodward had a series of interviews (11 hours) with George Bush on the subject of the war in Iraq. On Larry King, a few taped passages were played back for us and it is clear that Woodward got the story from Bush himself.
See:
http://search.cnn.com/search.jsp?query=War Within, Bob Woodward&type=web&sortBy=date&intl=false
Conclusions after listening to the two programs:
- The White House cabinet is running the war and bypasses The Chief of Staff and even the Secretary of Defense on occasion... Bush sent his personal emissary to visit General David Petraeus in Iraq without knowledge by the Chain of Command (Chief of Staff/ Secretary of Defense).
- Most meetings on the war are headed by the National Security Adviser without the presence of the President. Bush told Woodward that he was busy most of the times by other matters. The Commander in Chief is simply not overseeing the war... except for occasional Government comments to the public.
- Since July 2006, everybody, except the President, knew that things were going from bad to worse in Iraq. Bush lied to Congress and to the people of the US by saying that things were improving and on the way to victory. He (Bush) insisted in getting body counts of the enemy as often as possible to demonstrate the progress made.
- The relationship with the Senate Democrat majority leader and with the Speaker of the House (Nancy Polosi) are non existent to the point of break down.
- General David Petraeus is the only top military person with full knowledge of what is going on. This includes a new secret method applied to seek and kill the enemy which appears so effective that insurgents are running for their lives. Bob Woodward knows some of details of the secret endeavor but was advised by a 4 star General that any disclosure of the method would compromise the nation and American lives. Woodward doubts that a new elected President will be able to fire General Petraeus because he controls everything and bypasses the Pentagon.
In the next few days, the above will become knowledge to Obama and McCain. My sense is that McCain will want to distance himself from the Commander in Chief whose dereliction of duty is quite evident. Shame!