Woodward book confirms total incompetence on Iraq

I almost feel guilty writing about foreign affairs with all the Foley stuff cruising through the Internets, but also getting some attention is "State of Denial", the new book by veteran Washington Post writer Bob Woodward. The book lays out the years of Bush administration dissembling on Iraq and the war on terror, and does so in a calm, direct fashion. I've only been able to skim through it in the past couple days, but it's damning.

For better or worse, there's fairly little new information. If you read the front page of your daily newspaper, you probably know most of this stuff . . . except that many people don't read a newspaper every day. For those people, the imprimatur of Woodward makes a big difference. Further, Woodward is something of a Washington weather vane. His approval of -- and contribution to -- the shifting winds towards recognition of Bush administration misdirection and incompetence demonstrates that even the beltway "above the fray" crowd is starting to believe the rest of us "shrill" folks.

Some Bush administration defenders are pushing back, of course, and ThinkProgress (which has been just all over the big stories of late, they're really fantastic) blows apart the dishonest critiques of Woodward. I don't love Woodward, and I think his last two books were negligent, at best, but much of the latest work seems accurate. Republican hypocrisy isn't exactly surprising, but the idea that Woodward is generally anti-Bush is ludicrous. In any case, the book is another hole in the Republican sinking ship.