The New Republic

The 527 group Vets for Freedom is running a new ad accusing Barack Obama of skipping Senate votes and "voting against funding for our troops." READ MORE >>

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Woodward's book is strikingly silent on the Other War Within--over North Korea and Iran policy. Here's one of the few times he does address Iran: "I think we need to do something to get engaged with these guys," Fallon said. Iraq shared a 900-mile border with Iran, and he needed guidance and a strategy for dealing with the Iranians. "Well," Bush said, "these are assholes." READ MORE >>

It's possible to skip the interminable first section of Bob Woodward's book and peek at a two-page summary of his conclusions about the war on pp. 320-21. Reading these pages is a bit like watching the end of The Usual Suspects: Having fed you scene after grim scene of Casey, Petraeus, Rumsfeld, and company batting back and forth questions like "what are our goals in Iraq?" and "can we even define success?" Woodward reveals that it was Hadley, the unassuming guy right there next to Bush, who was deftly maneuvering everyone toward the surge all along: READ MORE >>

Here's how President Bush chose Robert Gates as Secretary of Defense, according to Woodward. The atmospherics are exceedingly murky:  Bush says he first considered Gates because "a friend he had gone to college with, whom he declined to identify, had first made the suggestion."   Bush is adamant on the fact that he didn't consult George H.W. Bush about Gates. "I don't think I needed to because I've heard my dad talk about Gates a lot in the past."   READ MORE >>

Chapter 4 seems like it's about to reveal the inner workings of the Iraq Study Group, showing us Colin Powell's private testimony before the panel. But Powell gives us no new information and it becomes clear that Woodward is just taking the chance to paint a portrait of the Great Man Laid Low: So the 10:30 A.M. meeting on this Friday was both a mission of accommodation and penance. He was going to have to confront the war and its aftermath for the rest of his life, and this was but another step on the road to sort out his anguish. ... READ MORE >>

Whether or not they agree on the wisdom of the surge, most people believe that the adoption of counterinsurgency tactics--known by their shorthand as "clear, hold, and build"--has been the key to reducing violence in Iraq. READ MORE >>

The first thing you notice out in the early pages of Bob Woodward's The War Within are the showy indictments of President Bush, who leans on poor General George Casey, Jr. like a fraternity pledge-master disappointed with his charge. READ MORE >>

Reading through Bob Woodward's The War Within, one thing that jumps out is the devastating portrait of National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley, who's often considered something of a dud and enabler in his position, on the model of first-term (2001-2005) Condoleezza Rice. Here he is on pages 8 and 27-28: Hadley believed he had developed as close a relationship with his president as any national security advisor in history. He was ever present. ... Hadley said of their relationship, "If I feel it, he feels it. If he feels it, I feel it." READ MORE >>

  Unlike Katrina in 2005, the government--as well as the aspiring governments of John McCain and Barack Obama--dropped everything for Hurricane Gustav. But how good was the response this time? TNR spoke with Jane Bullock, FEMA's chief of staff during the Clinton administration under James Lee Witt, who is considered the agency's best director, to assess: READ MORE >>