Bob
Woodward, State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III, Simon and Schuster, 2006,
$30.
Reviewed by Pete Creighton
Just how did we get into this terrible mess in Iraq? If you really
want to know the painful truth, here it is, all 491 pages. It reads almost like
a well-written novel, so skillful is author–reporter Bob Woodward.
State of Denial is the theme title, the sad story of
leaders in far-off Iraq not telling President Bush the bad news of how the
initial amazing military success of his war was soon showing ominous problems.
Readers will find out just how three major mistakes led to the
disaster we have today. You know them: Instead of using IraqÕs 500,000 or so
army to help reconstruct a damaged country, as once planned, we dismissed them
as being ÒSaddamÕsÓ army. That put a hoard of trained military men out on the
street with no income to feed their families. Almost as bad, we fired all the
civil administrators who may have worked more out of fear than loyalty to
Saddam. Thirdly, our troops — and there were not enough of them — watched
as looters seized anything of value or destroyed buildings out of revenge
against Saddam. Generators were depleted, limiting electricity, as the
temperature rose. Most of all, some citizens complained there was no security,
as the police were left untrusted and unpaid.
The book puts much blame for IraqÕs failure on Secretary of
Defense Don Rumsfeld and then on his appointee, Ambassador Paul Bremer. A third
tragic figure is retired General Jay Garner, who was appointed to lead the
post-combat phase of Iraq, and had the right plans — but was replaced
with Bremer. The latter was the hard-liner who was favored by Vice President
Cheney, Pentagon advisor Paul Wolfowitz, and others, and had no experience of
righting a wronged and sorry country.
Well, neither did President Bush, who, if told the hard truths,
may have avoided some of the disaster.
There have been several excellent books (by brave authors) who
have gone underground in Iraq to tell us what was really going on during the
2003–2005 years. Author Woodward tells us so well what was going on
underground in Washington ÒleadershipÓ — in a deteriorating occupation by
self-appointed occupiers.
Now we are at a bewildering junction. And itÕs scary. The invasion
added fuel to Arab hatred of Americans. Their radical forces are found in about
half the world, and growing.
A Democratic President and Congress may be left with this dilemma.
The world will be relieved to see them replace our neo-conservative rude
interlude in world history.
This book is available at the
Galesburg Public Library.