My latest read – State of Denial

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So I reached the finish line of Bob Woodward’s three part series on Bush at War. State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III is hard hitting to say the least. Not sure why I could not get through it earlier. I’ve been on a reading tear of late, but also pulling duty on our bathroom update for our first born.

As the book clearly shows, there are a lot of issues that have turned into stumbling blocks for the Bush Administration. It clearly shows we are involved in another disaster: Vietnam 2.0

Amazed that Woodward closed the series and his book with feedback from Robert McNamara, former US Secretary of Defense during Vietnam.

Pick your poison: is it worse that Bush could not admit during five minutes of questioning that no weapons of mass destruction (WoMD) were ever found in Iraq — or was it Johnson’s Gulf of Tonkin resolution? Your pick.

Did McNamara micromanage the war like Donald Rumsfeld? Are we today supporting an army in Iraq as weak as the South Vietnamese Army? Probably if the time frame was the ARVN following the Tet offensive.

Woodward clearly points out the failure of war policies executed around the November Presidential election. That made me think of Johnson’s similar decisions back in 1967 or the bombing halt before Christmas
…It is happening again.

Rumsfeld is now long gone but his bully actions still effect our current policy and troop deployment. Need another reference for a past failure? Fog of War is an award winning movie…in case you don’t want to read extensively about McNamara, Johnson, and Vietnam.

Woodward even wrote about additional troop deployments. These are before Bush asked for a 2007 troop surge of over 20,000. It makes his 2003 victory speech on a US aircraft carrier even more of a blunder. Woodward’s work is very critical of all levels of administrative involvement. If America still cannot address the lessons of Vietnam; from the battlefield to the oval office, we are only setting ourselves up for another disappointment and lost opportunity to change the world.

Tags: Bob Woodward, State of Denial, Bush, Rumsfeld, trends, Vietnam, Iraq, reading