The War Within was published by Simon & Schuster in September 2008. The book covers the period from 2006 to 2008 — the years of the Iraq surge — and completes Woodward’s four-volume chronicle of the Bush administration’s conduct of the Iraq War. After the catastrophic deterioration described in State of Denial, this volume traces the development and implementation of the surge strategy that stabilized Iraq enough to permit an eventual American withdrawal.
Woodward’s central revelation is that the surge was not primarily a military strategy but a political one, and that it was developed by a small group of officials — including NSC advisor Meghan O’Sullivan and retired General Jack Keane — who worked around the formal policy process because the existing bureaucracy was incapable of producing the change that was needed. The Joint Chiefs of Staff opposed the surge. The State Department was skeptical. The intelligence community’s assessments were bleak. Bush approved the surge over the objections of his own military leadership, a decision that Woodward presents as both courageous and characteristically stubborn.
The book also credits the covert intelligence programs — whose details Woodward describes only in general terms, at the request of the intelligence community — with a significant share of the surge’s success. These programs, which involved the targeting and killing of insurgent leaders, were arguably more important than the additional troops in reducing violence.
Collecting The War Within
First edition (Simon & Schuster, New York, 2008): Cloth binding, dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition, fine/fine: $10–$25
- Very good: $5–$15
- Signed: $30–$80