Bush At War
by Bob Woodward
Simon & Schuster $195
Watergate-breaking reporter Bob Woodward's latest offering is a fascinating inside account of the Bush administration during the first 100 days after the attacks of September 11, 2001. It is based on classified documents and interviews with more than 100 of the most senior people in the White House, the Pentagon and Langley (CIA headquarters). Although the book focuses on the last months of 2001, it includes a lengthy epilogue written late last year, which provides an almost seamless link to the present and makes for absorbing reading in the light of current international events.
Woodward paints a vivid picture of the heated and sometimes acrimonious debates from which America's response to the al-Qaeda attacks was ultimately forged, and provides a unique insight into the personalities and relationships that control the superpower. A consistent theme is the philosophical chasm between the moderate diplomat and Secretary of State,
Colin Powell, and the unilateralist hardliners led by Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld and Vice-President Dick Cheney. More of a revelation, perhaps, is George W Bush's heavy reliance on the counsel of National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice.