Plan of Attack: Amazon.de: Bob Woodward: Englische Bücher

Amazon.co.uk

The 2003 American invasion of Iraq was contentious, not just in the arena of global public opinion, but within the tight-lipped world of the George W Bush White House. As Bob Woodward reveals in Plan of Attack, Vice-President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld were part of a group leading the charge to war while Secretary of State Colin Powell, General Tommy Franks, and others actively questioned the plan to invade a country that had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks while war in Afghanistan was still being waged.

Woodward gained extensive access to dozens of key figures and enjoyed hours of direct contact with the President himself (more time, seemingly, than former Bush administration officials Richard Clarke and Paul O'Neill claim to have had). As a result, he's able to cite the kind of gossip you won't find in a White House press release: Franks calls Pentagon official Douglas Feith "the f*cking stupidest guy on the face of the earth", Powell shares his alarm over how the cautious Cheney of the first Bush administration had transformed into a zealot, and Saudi Ambassador Prince Bandar seems to enjoy significantly more influence than most would have thought possible.

Bush is shown as a man intent on toppling Saddam Hussein in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 and never really wavering in his decision despite offering hints that non-military solutions could be achieved. Light is also shed on CIA director George Tenet, who insists that the evidence that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction was "a slam dunk" only to later admit that his intelligence was flawed when months of post-war searches turned up nothing. But the book's most interesting character is Powell. A former soldier himself, who finds himself increasingly at odds with the agenda of the administration, Powell rejects evidence on WMDs that he sees as spurious but ultimately endorses the invasion effort, apparently out of duty.

Upon its publication, the Bush administration roundly denied many of the accounts in the book that demonstrated conflict within their circles, poor judgment, or lousy planning, but the Bush/Cheney re-election campaign nonetheless listed Plan of Attack as recommended reading. And it is. It shows alarming problems in the way the war was conceived and planned, but it also demonstrates the tremendous conviction and dedication of the people who decided to carry it out. --John Moe, Amazon.com -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verf�gbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.

Amazon.com

The 2003 American invasion of Iraq was contentious, not just in the arena of global public opinion, but within the tight-lipped world of the George W. Bush White House. As Bob Woodward reveals in Plan of Attack, Vice-President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld were part of a group leading the charge to war while Secretary of State Colin Powell, General Tommy Franks, and others actively questioned the plan to invade a country that had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks while war in Afghanistan was still being waged. Woodward gained extensive access to dozens of key figures and enjoyed hours of direct contact with the President himself (more time, seemingly, than former Bush administration officials Richard Clarke and Paul O'Neill claim to have had). As a result, he's able to cite the kind of gossip you won't find in a White House press release: Franks calls Pentagon official Douglas Feith "the f*cking stupidest guy on the face of the earth," Powell shares his alarm over how the cautious Cheney of the first Bush administration had transformed into a zealot, and Saudi Ambassador Prince Bandar seems to enjoy significantly more entrée and influence than most anyone would have thought. Bush is shown as a man intent on toppling Saddam Hussein in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 and never really wavering in his decision despite offering hints that non-military solutions could be achieved. Light is also shed on CIA director George Tenet, who insists that the evidence that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction was "a slam dunk" only to later admit that his intelligence was flawed when months of post-war searches turned up nothing. But the book's most interesting character is Powell. A former soldier himself, who finds himself increasingly at odds with the agenda of the administration, Powell rejects evidence on WMDs that he sees as spurious but ultimately endorses the invasion effort, apparently out of duty. Upon its publication, the Bush administration roundly denied many of the accounts in the book that demonstrated conflict within their circles, poor judgment, or lousy planning, but the Bush/Cheney reelection campaign nonetheless listed Plan of Attack as recommended reading. And it is. It shows alarming problems in the way the war was conceived and planned, but it also demonstrates the tremendous conviction and dedication of the people who decided to carry it out. --John Moe -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verf�gbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.

Alle Produktbeschreibungen

Kundenrezensionen

5 Sterne

4 Sterne

3 Sterne

2 Sterne

1 Sterne

8 Rezensionen

4.5 von 5 Sternen

Kundenrezension verfassen

Die hilfreichsten Kundenrezensionen

3 von 3 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich

Hervorragender Blick hinter die Kulissen 14. Juli 2004

Von Ein Kunde

Format:Gebundene Ausgabe

Ein äusserst interessantes Buch, das es wert ist, im Original zu lesen, da man so noch hohe Aktualität erhält. Übersetzt gehen viele sprachliche Feinheiten verloren, da häufig ganze Interviewstellen im O-Ton wiedergegeben werden. Dem Leser wird ein Einblick in die Entscheidungsfindung der Bush-Administration ermöglicht mit dem Wissen, wie sehr damals Glaube und Wissen verwechselt wurden.Insbesondere die Personen werden sehr gut charakterisiert.

Kommentar |

War diese Rezension f�r Sie hilfreich?

Nein

1 von 1 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich

Der Weg in den Irak-Krieg und wer die Schrittmacher waren 19. Januar 2005

Von Arne Meyer

Format:Taschenbuch

Woodwards Buch gibt einen interessanten Einblick in das Innenleber der Bush-Administration im Vorfeld des zweiten Irak-Krieges. Zu diesem Zweck hat der legendäre Journalist zahlreiche Interviews mit Vertretern der Regierung geführt, u. a. mit Bush selbst und mit US-Verteidigungsminister Donald Rumsfeld.

Es überrascht kaum, dass Bush frühzeitig auf den Irak und eine militärische Auseinandersetzung mit dem Regime von Saddam Hussein fixiert war. Auch mit der Rolle der Falken (u. a. Vize-Präsident Dick Cheney und Sicherheitsberaterin Condoleeza Rice) und der Tauben (v. a. Außenmininster Collin Powell, den Woodward als bald einflusslosen und mehr oder weniger ausgebooteten Akteur beschreibt) setzt sich Woodward ausführlich auseinander.

Interessant sind auch seine Ausführungen über die Rolle der Geheimdienste, vor allem der CIA. So hat die Agency weit vor den ersten Bombardements im März 2003 "verdeckte Ermittlungsteams" in den Irak eingeschleust, um dort zusätzlich irakische Quellen aus dem Umfeld Husseins anzuzapfen.

Zwar widmet sich Woodward auch ausführlich den Bemühungen Bushs, eine internationale Koalition für seinen Irak-Feldzug zu schmieden. Die Verwerfungen zwischen Washington, Paris und Berlin kommen meines Erachtens allerdings deutlich zu kurz. Trotz allem ein sehr lesenswertes Buch - gerade jetzt, wo sich Bush scheinbar Iran und weiteren Bestandteilen der "Achse des Bösen" zuwendet.

Lack of Intelligence 2. Juni 2004

Von Donald Mitchell TOP 500 REZENSENT

In the aftermath of the American-led invasion of Iraq, veteran journalist Bob Woodward arranged to interview the key players in the United States who led the decision and its implementation. The comments are remarkably candid and reflect deep divisions over policy within the Bush administration.

For the most part, Mr. Woodward avoids analyzing what he learned. But he cannot help emphasizing that there was no convincing intelligence information to lead anyone to believe that Iraq had deliverable weapons of mass destruction and was planning to turn those weapons on Israel or to turn them over to Al Qaeda for use in the U.S.

Instead, what we see is a White House that automatically saw Saddam Hussein as the world's greatest threat to the United States. The logic of that fear was that Saddam had had weapons of mass destruction in the past and used them, Saddam was crazy, and Saddam would stop at nothing to hurt the United States. The fear was so great that some would call it paranoia.

Getting Saddam was more important than stopping terrorism by going after Al Qaeda with all of our influence and force.

The interesting thing about the lack of intelligence was that the CIA had an easy time getting intelligence to run the war. But it couldn't find any proof of weapons of mass destruction during its extensive penetration of the Iraqi regime.

In the rush to war, relatively little attention was paid to how to create democracy, prevent oil prices from spiking, keeping terrorists out of Iraq, treating prisoners decently, and keeping North Korea and Iran under control.

This is an administration that seems to forget that most of the Al Qaeda people who attacked the United States were middle class Saudi Arabians annoyed by the United States being present on the Arabian peninsula. Another invasion of Iraq would only annoy even more people of that persuasion.

As much as I honor our brave soldiers for the job they are doing in Iraq, I cannot see how this has improved our position in the War on Terror. There seems to be a lack of intelligence on that front.

I cannot help but note that America still has troops in Germany, almost 60 years after World War II ended. I have to assume that the same will be true in Iraq. My great grandchildren will be paying for this war. I wonder what they will think of the lack of intelligence that went into this invasion.

Read this book and see what you think.