"Bush at War"

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that Bob Woodward's "Bush at War" consists largely of day-by-day juxtapositions of accounts of what American leaders, such as President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld and others, were, according to Woodward, thinking and saying about the war in Afghanistan compared with what was actually occurring. The author points out that Woodward uses a distinct approach to writing non-fiction in that (1) he tries to obtain the maximum amount of information on his subject through interviews, documents, transcripts and recordings and (2) then uses this information to re-create the event in the form of a story with an omniscient narrator, present tense events and dialogue; thereby, his books read like fiction novels featuring strong characterization. The paper relates that some of Woodward's critics accuse him of abandoning critical inquiry to maintain his access to high-profile political actors; others praise his detached and evenhanded style for allowing readers to absorb the facts and come to their own conclusions.

From the Paper:

"In a series of articles published in January 2002, Woodward and Dan Balz described the events at Camp David in the aftermath of September 11. These articles later became the basis for this book. Woodward has spent more time than any other journalist with President George W. Bush while in office, interviewing him four times for more than seven hours total. His most recent two books, Bush at War (2002) and Plan of Attack (2004), are detailed accounts of the Bush presidency, including the response to the 9-11 terrorist attacks and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq."

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