Overview
"Plan of Attack" is a definitive account of how & why President Geo W. Bush, his war council & allies launched a preemptive attack to topple Saddam Hussein & occupy Iraq. Woodward's latest account of Washington decision making provides an original, authoritative narrative of behind-the-scenes maneuvering over two years, examining the causes & consequences of the most controversial war since Vietnam. Based on interviews with 75 key participants & over 3.5 hours of exclusive interviews with Bush, Plan of Attack is part presidential history charting the decisions made during 16 critical months; part military history revealing precise details & the evolution of the Top Secret war planning under the restricted codeword Polo Step; part a spy story as the CIA dispatches a covert paramilitary team into northern Iraq 6 months before the start of the war. This team recruited 87 Iraqi spies designated with the cryptonym DB/ROCKSTARS, one of whom turned over the personnel files of all 6000 men in Saddam Hussein's personal security organization. What emerges are astonishingly intimate portraits: Bush in war cabinet meetings in the White House Situation Room & Oval Office, & in private conversation; Dick Cheney, the focused & driven vice president; Colin Powell, the conflicted & cautious secretary of state; Donald Rumsfeld, the controlling war technocrat; Geo Tenet, the activist CIA director; Tommy Franks, the profane & demanding general; Condoleezza Rice, the ever-present referee & national security adviser; Karl Rove, the hands-on political strategist; other key members of the White House staff & congressional leadership; & foreign leaders ranging from British Prime Minister Blair to Russian President Putin. Plan of Attack provides new details on the intelligence assessments of Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction & the planning for the war's aftermath.