Woodward’s “War” book praises many Biden decisions

His book, “War,” says Bob Woodward, “presents the efforts and decisions to try to prevent war, and where war came, to avoid escalation.”

Really, the book should be titled “Wars,” because while the central focus is Ukraine, the war provoked by Russian wannabe Czar Vladimir Putin, much of the book deals with the war in Gaza, provoked by the Hamas terrorist group.

It’s a little stretch to believe “Wars” includes a third war, at the southern border, that President Joe Biden lost. It was an issue that became a noose for Biden’s reelection effort. “Republicans had Biden over a barrel that he had, in part,” writes Woodward, “created for himself by revoking Trump’s policies and not replacing them with an effective, more humanitarian alternative.”

So Biden lost that war, but “won” the Gaza war by preventing it from becoming a regional war, and also “won” the ongoing war in Ukraine by helping expose Putin’s military as hollow and disorganized.

We entered neither war as a combatant, following Biden’s strict orders to avoid sending U.S. troops to fight foreign wars, born of his phobia of creating another Vietnam. But in each case we are an armorer, supplier, coach, and cheerleader.

Before diving in, I was puzzled by a note to readers from Woodward. He  writes, “All interviews in this book were conducted under the journalistic ground rule of ‘deep cover.’ This means that all the information could be used, but I would not say who provided it.”

But he directly quotes and names people dozens of times, so I am puzzled. The book was deeply and thoroughly fact-checked and edited, he says, so I am scratching my head about how that slipped through.

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham is quoted frequently and with such grace I believe he was a more major informant than the quotes attributed to him suggest. One funny quote and one trenchant one:

“Going to Mar-a-Largo is a little bit like going to North Korea. Everyone stands and claps every time Trump comes in.” That was funny. Trenchant: Winning the presidency would be “the biggest second act in the history of American politics” because 50% of Americans would follow him off a cliff, 20% would push him off the cliff, and 30% are waiting to see which way the wind blows.

My confusion with quoted attributions is  only one of two problems I have with the book, produced by Woodward, as added evidence that he is one of the pre-eminent journalists of our time.

Journalist, not novelist.

“War” is less “written” than “reported.”

“War” is a very fast read. Its 368 pages are carved into 77 chapters, some as brief as a single page, so it reads like a stream of news dispatches. Rather than a deep-think analysis, it’s a fast-paced narrative in unembellished straight-forward story-telling, in adjective-free news writing style.

Not to say it doesn’t have a point of view.

It is favorable to Joe Biden, but not because Woodward is a member of the inside the Beltway media Democratic pack. It is because, through his decades of reporting from inside Washington, he has a deep knowledge of, and sympathy to, how the Presidency works.

Having read how Biden handled the twin war crises gave me a much more favorable view of him, which I came to grudgingly, as I consider him to be a well-intended gas bag with some good views — pro-union, pro-Amtrak, among some bad ones — Open Borders, slashing student college debt.

The second caveat I have about the book, and Woodward, was knowledge he came across during the end of Biden’s term that Scranton’s favorite son was slowing down mentally. Woodward did not vigorously pursue this story for his honorary employer the Washington Post. Instead, he withheld it for his book. 

Although the book presents a favorable view of Biden, as a collaborative leader, one who peppered his staff with incisive questions (at least early on), Woodward is clear-eyed enough to describe the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan as “calamitous,” not the success that Biden claimed.

Biden’s actual biggest success was helping keep the war in Gaza from exploding into a regional war with the possibility of becoming a world war.

The Middle East is a snake pit of competing interests in which ths U.S. has several allies, but only one true friend, our fellow democracy, Israel.

Biden moved quickly — more so than Ukraine — to furnish all the arms, intelligence, and moral support the Jewish state needed. This despite Biden’s loathing of Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, whom Woodward quotes him as saying, “He’s a fucking liar . . . He’s a bad fucking guy.”

Woodward reports that surrounding Arab states wanted Israel to destroy Hamas, but would never dare say so publicly.

However, when Iran fired a missile barrage at Israel, both Jordon and Saudi Arabia cooperated in defending Israel. Arabs defending Israelis. Credit Biden for that.

Israel decimated Hamas, and heavily punished Hezbollah after the terrorist group opened a second front against Israel.

The result in Ukraine is unclear, and unfinished.

Biden again backed our ally to the hilt, but he dithered in sending arms when needed.

He also sent conflicting messages on how he would confront Russia, fearful of escalating. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin told the Russians that any use of nuclear weapons, no matter how small, would be considered a game-changer, while Biden said he would not respond to Russia’s nukes with our own. 

But he did rally our NATO allies, the ones Trump derides, to come to Ukraine’s defense. Sanctions also were applied against Russia, which responded by drawing closer to China, North Korea, and Iran.  This is the new reality Trump will face as President.

This would stir fear in the mind of former four-star Marine Corps General John F. White, chosen by Trump to be White House chief of staff.

“He is an idiot,” he told Woodward. “It’s pointless to try to convince him of anything.”

Woodward reports “senior officials removed documents from his desk so that Trump would not sign actions that would trigger a major economic or national security crisis.”

Was this an example of the Deep State at work? The anecdote may provide an explanation for why Trump prizes loyalty to him above all else.

Near the conclusion of the book, published before the election, Woodward declares that Trump “is unfit to lead the country . . . Trump was the most impulsive President in American history and is demonstrating the very same character as a Presidential candidate in 2024.”

And he is President again.