Inside Bush's Surge

Woodward: "No. He wanted to fix it, but they didn't want to come out and say, hey, look, this is a mess. They said it was difficult. But you compare the public language with the private language and the memos and the discussions and the meetings, and it's -- it couldn't be more different. And, you know, the question of why is, as I say in the book, I think -- I never questioned the president's sincerity here, but there was an avoidance of conflict within the team in the White House and the cabinet.

"He never -- as best I can tell from everyone, including himself. I asked him, I said, 'Did you ever say to General Casey -- did you ever say to Rumsfeld, hey, this isn't working? Hey, Don.' And the president said, 'I don't remember those meetings -- discussions. I don't have any recollection of that.' Well, here is where the rubber meets the road in war. This isn't preparing for war. This isn't the aftermath of a war. . . . This is right in the guts of a war."

In the book, Woodward writes that in one of his two interviews with Bush, he asked about how the White House settled on a troop surge of five brigades after the military leadership in Washington had reluctantly said it could provide two. Bush replied: "Okay, I don't know this. I'm not in these meetings, you'll be happy to hear, because I got other things to do."

Woodward told King: "Now, this is the key pivot point in these decisions -- in this decision on the surge and he's not there and he's telling me I should be happy that he's not there and he's got other things to do."

King: "Wow!"

Woodward: "Now, he does have other things to do, but this is a war -- when the intelligence and everyone is telling him it's failing, it's not working and it's hell."

King: "Wow!"

Woodward: "I don't understand that disengagement. I've done this for 37 years of reporting. This isn't a source. This isn't somebody thinking that they saw. . . . It's right out of the president's own mouth. . . . "

King: "Why -- you often have been very critical of him in your last book, very critical of him. Why do you think he talks to you?"

Woodward: "I think I presented his side. I have presented what occurred. You know, a number of people have read this and said, well, it -- yes, it was slow. . . . But he made a decision that has led us to a much better condition, and if you are of the Karl Rove view of politics and life in America, which is everything gets measured by outcomes, you could look at this and say it's a positive.

"I thoroughly present the president's views and his words. At the same time, after doing four books . . . my conclusions are tough and it goes to the question of what are your expectations of a president who started a war [and] three and a half years into it, when it's failing, and he says there's no hurry. When he is not at some of the meetings, when he will not get the chief players here all together and knock their heads and say, we have to fix this. . . .

"As you look at this period of the last two years covered in this book, the effort was not enough, given the responsibility that he has as commander in chief. And, yes, efforts were made, things were done. It was brutal. But when you look at it, day by day, sometimes meeting by meeting, and see the disconnection, the dysfunction, the mismanagement, it unfortunately is a very sad story."