 War Within - great for facts, terrible for chronology
Book appears to be onn the button factually but try to follow chronology
very difficult. He writes about years 2003 and skips to 2006 or 2005 back
to 2003. Names of military personnel are sometimes difficult to relate to
an event or time element.
Overall good for facts and illumination into the Bush II White House.
 Too much here and too little there....
i find the book to be somewhat evenhanded, albeit slow to build, with speciouz arguments and several ineffective redundancies. but for a neophyte like me, an excellent primer to the internal discussions. Difficult to discern why Hadley and Keane had such preeminentinsights? Werethey doing the most talking to Woodward?
 Why George W. Bush Should Have Been Impeached and Removed From Office.
As a conservative Republican who voted for George W. Bush twice, I was a little leery of Bob Woodward's series on the Iraq War. But after reading State of Denial and The War Within I came to the conclusion that the 43d President of the United States should have been brought up before the House of Representatives on Articles of Impeachment for the woeful mismanagement of the war.
The War Within gives the reader a sometimes minute-by-minute look at the Iraq War from the vantage point from most of the major and minor pricipals involved. Meticulously researched, sourced and quoted this book sets the gold standard for the body of work on this subject matter.
Woodward lets this sad story tell itself; Rumsfeld, Colin Powell, Condi Rice, Stephen J. Hadley and Mr. Bush are not portrayed in a favorable light. The President appears to be in his own insular world oblivious to the realities on the ground in Iraq; his generals and staff, blindly groping for a way out of the morass.
This book will make you mourn for the loss of treasure, and prestige that our country has suffered because of Mr. Bush's folly. The War Within is a valuable public service.
War Within is a fantastic read
The behind the scenes look at the decision to proceed with the seige. Fantastic book. It was amazing to see how smart some of the players were and clueless the others were.
 Illumintaing & Comprehensive But Poorly Written
If you are seeking an accurate and comprehensive account of the Bush administration's failures that lead to worsening conditions in Iraq there isn't a better book out there. Woodward deserves ample credit for his precise reporting as one gets the sense that he was standing in the room as many key meetings, conversations and decisions were occurring in the White House.
If you want this account to be well written and a `page turner' `The War Within' may not be the book for you. After barely finishing `The War Within', I understood why Woodward strength was characterized as `gathering information' and Bernstein was viewed as the `better writer' in their earlier collaborative efforts. At times, reading `The War Within' felt like running a marathon on a hot and humid day.
Woodward's book is especially illuminating when it comes to understanding the decision making process in the Bush White House as well as the various failures of both the President himself and key operatives when it came to Iraq. The reader comes away knowing how key personnel including Chaney, Rumsfeld, and Bush himself approached their jobs and how their blind spots took the country down a perilous road.
However, the book reads more like a transcript than a concise and well flowing narrative. One gets the sense that Woodward's publishers were so eager to get this book on the shelves before the Presidential election which lead to corners being cut in the book's writing and editing. Ultimately, I came away with the information I set out to learn, but it wasn't always a pleasurable ride getting there.
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