Bob Woodward 60 Minutes Interview: Woodward Discusses His New Book On Bush (VIDEO)

A year and a half since the surge in Iraq, violence is the lowest it has been since the invasion. The idea of throwing another 30,000 troops into Iraq was a desperate gamble in a dark time. And only now are we finding out just how much opposition there was by the nation's top military leaders. That's among the revelations in a new book by Washington Post Associate Editor Bob Woodward.

"The War Within" is Woodward's fourth insider account from the Bush White House.

60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley sat down with Woodward for his first interview in advance of the book's release and asked him about the war within the administration after the surge was proposed by civilians in the White House.

Read full story here.

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Watch excerpts of the 60 Minutes interview.

Comments

[ufty44]

LET WHAT FAIL ????

[researcher]

Please if the surge is working send mc war to Baghdad and let him walk those save streets.

Tell Americans a lie long enough and they will believe it.

The repubs know this the demos don’t have a clue.

[Dynamohum]

Maybe some democrats....NOT THIS DEMOCRAT!!!!

[drayntx]

Now we know why the surge has "succeeded" beyond "anybody's" (read: the generals who opposed the surge because they new what the situation looked like) expectations. Secret behind the scenes operations, payments to Iraqis to not fight, al-Sadr's commanding his troops to stand down, clensing-all helped the surge to "succeed". Only it's not success because the goals of the surge have not been met. We shouldn't have gone there in the first place. I don't remember... somebody remind me why we went there to save the Iraqis. There is no solution to this mess. Whether we stay or leave, this situation will devolve in to the hot mess that it is.

[Treasonous1]

Yes, what you mean to say is that is the reason the violance is down along with the awakening. Just looking at it logically, simply bringing the troop levels back to the same level they were at in late 2005 can't be the reason violance is much lover than it was then. While the "surge" did have an inpact, anyone saying it is responible for more than 20% of the drop in violance tops from the early 2007 levels is either naive or lying. Unfortunately the quote by Oboma is out there and that is all people will focus on and not that he tried to mentioned the other factors for why it appears so succesfull. Biden did a better job explaining the situation though even he was not as forcefull as he should have been.
If you even listen to McCain before the surge he had concerns that this small a surge would not be sufficient to have a real impact. The reason he, the democrats, and the generals felt this way was because simply restoring troop levels to where they were before could not suddenly succeed where they had not before. For the success to come all the other factors that were outlined by Woodward had to occur, and they simply coincided with the surge. But beliving it is the surge that caused all the drop in violance is like doing a rain dance for a month and when it finally rains you say your efforts succeded.

[LeBelAge]

Here is how conservatives measure success. Instead of 80 Americans being killed a day pre-surge, now 40 Americans are being killed a day.

That is not a measure of success when Americans are still being killed so that oil companies can still another nations oil.

No Americans should have to continue to die in this immoral occupation that is destroying our economy. Period. If only 1 American dies from now until we leave Iraq, that is too much.

[JulianJons]

This is the kind of stuff that causes coup d etat in other countries.

[geobushono]

peter pace led the coup.....Surprise!!

[jane47]

Additional considerations neglected during pre-war Iraq may be why free energy was not considered

Why we not afforded the privilege of FREE ENERGY

I have included the website of a Utube video as shown on Sky news Australia. The inventors on this website are not the only people who have managed to realise Nikola Tesla's invention. If you are interested in the zero point energy I reccommend Thomas Reardon USA (often maligned in the internet- however in my opinion he has the intregrity of Paul Skinner as I have observed in the BBC interviews) to enlighten the relaity of this reality.

http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2008/02/26/free-energy-home-generator-zero-point-energy-off-the-grid/

http://www.free-energy-info.co.uk/

Australian race car driver, Peter Brock, who died from a freak accident has developed a polarisor which enables a huge reduction in G force on vehicles cornering and stopping... information GMH has secured...

http://forums.thescene.com.au/forums/t/33313.aspx

I have also sent this information to Al Fayed and Mahindra Motors in India, Rio Tinto Chairman Paul Skinner and Prince Charles and if I could find Carlos Ghosn (Nissan Motors ) I would also send this to him

I am only hopeful that someone will be able to investigate why and how we are not able to be afforded this amazing energy source.

Warm regards and many thanks
Jane

[chronic]

"I don"t know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and really don"t care. It"s not that important. It"s not our priority."
- G.W. Bush, 3/13/02

"I am truly not that concerned about him."
- G.W. Bush, repsonding to a question about bin Laden"s whereabouts,
3/13/02 (The New American, 4/8/02)

Why in Gods name are the Democrats not reminding the American people of this?

* Republicans must own thier failures *

[booksnmore4you]

This is outrageous!

Let's wittle this WAY down.

1. White House wants more troops.
2. Bush views "winning the war" as whether American troops can produce a greater number of dead bodies.
3. All generals disagree.
4. White House snubs generals, replaces them with a few who will play hat-in-hand with him.
5. Lies to American people about the war.
6. Twists Maliki's arm to go along.
7. Main reason why surge has worked is a secret covert intelligence program, "the stuff of which military novels are written", says Woodward.
8. We've seriously bugged Maliki.
9. Bush thinks America is Iraq's liberator. Does not get it that Iraquis are not appreciative of what he's done for them.
10. Bush thinks the next President cannot let the surge fail.

This is America?

Wake up citizens!

[thewildlunch]

What are these breakthrough "secret operational capabilities" that "locate, target, and kill"? Comparable to the effect of tanks and planes on war? Wow ...

My guess is satellite technology used as weapons. Purely a guess.

[dahlenu]

It's hard to say what one should make of this. Woodward has disappointed me enormously, once I understood he is a partisan Republican. It's very hard to square his work on Watergate with his admiration of Bush. He criticises Bush, yes, but you still get the feeling that he admires the guy. In my view Bush is a much bigger crook than Nixon.

[MadeinAmericaProud]

You are not alone in your view

[Whatevah]

Well, clearly you should be more concerned about objective reporting and less concerned about partisanship.

Think of the folks who lap up the slop at Faux News. Now, do the opposite. The Woodward-bashing seen in the past at HuffPo has been really disappoint. Who cares what Woodward believes? I care about the facts he reports, and the fact that he isn't some crazy lefty makes his criticisms more valid and believable.

[GetoffMylawn]

If Sarah becomes president after John W McCain's spring 2009 aneurism, she will be a puppet on a stick to the dark cloaks that run this war. Oh yeah, a PTA pitbull puppet with lipstick.

[gianardil]

I am going to try to post a link to youtube for a "message to Mr. Bush" Although you should watch the other video links on this thread. The message to Mr. Bush, is truly one of the most appalling things I have ever seen. This should not only go into every single home with a computer, someone like Bill Maher should put this on his show. Someone has to force the American people to see these things. i am so sick to my stomack right now that I cannot look at anymore right now. he belongs in jail as a war criminal, along with Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Gates, and every General for not standing up to this nightmare. My god. I cannot believe what is on these sites. These are from the Iraqi people. This is not made up stuff. Please all of you watch these, at least as many as you can. I have cried for the past hour. No joke.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cgUqDmsVlM&NR=1

[MadeinAmericaProud]

To put it as nice as I can, the people voted for him twice

[myangeldog1]

Hi gianardil - sorry I can't watch your video as my stomach is churning from all of this Palin B.S. But I ask that you post it everywhere......We have GOT to wake this nation UP. Thanks

[fishsandwichesr2good]

Things go wrong. Bush isn't listening to his generals. Things go right. Bush isn't listening to his generals. The surge works. It's all luck. It's all other forces. TP missing? Damn W's fault.

[Vote For America]

Sarah Palin is the political equivalent of the sports fan whose favorite team is the one who just claimed the title. She is incapable of understanding the plight of a Cubs fan because she's too busy buying Red Sox merchandise. Nobody will take Sarah seriously until she reaches into her closet and pulls out that Cubs jersey...
http://voteforamerica.net/editorials/Comments.aspx?ArticleId=46&ArticleName=Will+the+Real+Sarah+Palin+Please+Stand+Up

[Krankil]

"The decision about the surge was made in the white house without consulting with the Genarals on the ground contrary to what Bush has always claimed". Doesn't that remove any confusion. As I said in an earlier post: Bush realized that the only way out is to get the sunni tribals to fight al-qaeida and buy the Saddam loyalists. But that was a suggestion made by his critics and that he resisted for over 3 years. He can't be seen wrong because he talks to God every day and he takes his orders directely from God. God is never wrong. What a Karl Rove would suggest in a situation like this (since Bush has no brains and they call Rove his brains). Adopt the strategy suggested by the critics but add to it what McSame is recommending (surge), have a debate about it and hype its importance as much as possible while of course hiding the deal with the tribal leaders.. once we reduce the violence, we'll know how to attribute it to the surge: Rush Limbaugh, FAUX news and AM radio will do the propaganda. the rest of the media will just follow

[jhoughton1]

The thing that jumped out at me on "60 Minutes" was the tape of Woodie's interview with Bush. Bush spoke quickly, without stumbling -- and the bogus Texas accent was almost entirely missing. Whassup widdat? Is it finally going to come out that Bush supporters have been following a clown act?

[gorgol]

Yes..its all part of the "Rovian" plan. Act STupid, act like a "good ole boy", act like a guy everyone would like to have a beer with, chop wood when you go to your ranch (the he man factor)...say you love Jesus, and the american people will follow you over a cliff. But Bush was the real "prissy missy", the coward, the "closet queen" (Pootie Poot..good GRIEF can't ANYONE connect the dots in this country?) We've been had. Bush is a sociopath, if not worse.