The War Within: A Secret White House History 2006-2008

As violence in Iraq reaches unnerving levels in 2006, a second front in the war rages at the highest levels of the Bush administration. Bob Woodward takes readers deep inside the secret debates, unofficial backchannels, distrust and determination within the White House, the Pentagon, the State Department, the intelligence agencies and the U.S. military. With intimacy and detail, this gripping account of a President at war describes the distress and uncertainty within the U.S. government from 2006 through mid-2008. The White House launches a secret strategy that excludes the military. General George Casey, the commander in Iraq, believes President Bush does not understand the war and concludes he has lost the president's confidence. The Joint Chiefs of Staff also conduct a secret strategy review that goes nowhere. A retired Army general uses his high-level contacts to shape decisions about the war, as Bush and Cheney use him to deliver sensitive messages outside the chain of command. For months, the administration's strategy reviews continue in secret, in part because public disclosure would harm Republicans in the November 2006 elections. The War Within provides an exhaustive account General David Petraeus, who takes over in Iraq during the bleakest and most violent period of the war. It reveals how breakthroughs in military operations and surveillance account for much of the progress as violence in Iraq plummets in mid 2007. Woodward interviewed key players, obtained dozens of never-before-published documents, and had nearly three hours of exclusive interviews with President Bush. The result is a firsthand history from mid-2006, when the White House realizes their strategy is not working, through the decision to send 30,000 more U.S. troops in 2007, when the war becomes a fault line in the presidential election. The War Within addresses head-on questions of leadership, not just in war but in how we are governed and the dangers of unwarranted secrecy.