Plan of Attack is the
definitive account of how and why President George W. Bush, his war council, and allies
launched a preemptive attack to topple Saddam Hussein and occupy Iraq. Bob Woodward's
latest landmark account of Washington decision making provides an original, authoritative
narrative of behind-the-scenes maneuvering over two years, examining the causes and
consequences of the most controversial war since Vietnam.
Based on interviews with 75
key participants and more than three and a half hours of exclusive interviews with
President Bush, Plan of Attack is part presidential history charting the decisions made
during 16 critical months; part military history revealing precise details and the
evolution of the Top Secret war planning under the restricted codeword Polo Step; and part
a harrowing spy story as the CIA dispatches a covert paramilitary team into northern Iraq
six 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 6,000 men
in Saddam Hussein's personal security organization.
What emerges are
astonishingly intimate portraits: President Bush in war cabinet meetings in the White
House Situation Room and the Oval Office, and in private conversation; Dick Cheney, the
focused and driven vice president; Colin Powell, the conflicted and cautious secretary of
state; Donald Rumsfeld, the controlling war technocrat; George Tenet, the activist CIA
director; Tommy Franks, the profane and demanding general; Condoleezza Rice, the
ever-present referee and national security adviser; Karl Rove, the hands-on political
strategist; other key members of the White House staff and congressional leadership; and
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 and
the planning for the war's aftermath.
462 pages