"War" by Bob Woodward
Reviewed in the United States on October 23, 2024 | Rating: 5/5 | Best Sellers in Audible Books & Originals
war covers the period of bidens presidency primarily from about six months before putins russia invaded the ukraine through bidens announcement in july of 2024 that he was no longer running for reelection the war in the ukraine and and the war that hamas started october 7 with israel are very important centerpieces in this narrative it shows many of the interactions in managing these conflicts in which the usa is actively supporting ukraine and israel while not taking an active role in the combatwhile the narrative centers primarily on joe bidens presidency and his inner staff during this wartime period donald trump also has some coverage in this book along with kamala harris to a lesser degree as a part of bidens presidency i was personally glad that woodward covered both the capable administrator joe biden and the well meaning old man in decline it would be dishonest not to present boththere was a part of me that sometimes wanted to cry over the events described in the ukraine and israel october 7 hamas attack i also had the terrible feeling that it was a preview of world war 3 the very best that can be said is that biden was able to navigate the difficult role of supporting both the ukraine and israel without getting the us directly involved in the fighting honest people can agree or disagree on if the biden administration had any impact on why these these situations started but it seems clear that his administration did everything practical to both support the ukraine and israel in their conflicts while doing its best to prevent us soldiers being in armed conflict also biden seemed to try his best to control collateral damage to the civilian population of gaza there is a deep irony that foreign policy is often the primary area the president is responsible for while at the same time the us president has limited influence on other governments add to that the intense legal pressure on bidens son hunter and in a way its not surprising that biden has aged before our eyes despite a long career in governmentdonald trump gets some mention part of it because he is a significant part of the us political landscape another part is the contrast between bidens approach and trumps approach obviously both are willful men and both are self confident donald trump tends to operate on instinct while biden is a more conventional executive the advantage of instinct is that its prone to quick decision the big disadvantage is that if instinct is wrong it can make big mistakesthis is the 3rd recent woodward book i have read its obvious that bob does his homework to the degree that you feel you are there during some of the hard decisions  you get details unlike some books and authors i found that bob did a good job of conveying the story and information mostly without using obscure words and terms without explaining them in other words the book is readableif you are interested in current events i can definitely recommend this book i read it on the kindle app from amazon so i could get my copy immediately and save a few dollars