Woodward concurs with the bulk of the reporting: this president's war-management has been criminally negligent:
Robert D. Blackwill, then the top Iraq adviser on the National Security Council, is said to have issued his warning about the need for more troops in a lengthy memorandum sent to Ms. Rice. The book says Mr. Blackwill’s memorandum concluded that more ground troops, perhaps as many as 40,000, were desperately needed.
It says that Mr. Blackwill and L. Paul Bremer III, then the top American official in Iraq, later briefed Ms. Rice and Stephen J. Hadley, her deputy, about the pressing need for more troops during a secure teleconference from Iraq. It says the White House did nothing in response.
This president knew what was required to win in Iraq and he refused to provide the resources or adjust his strategy. He is responsible for one of the biggest strategic disasters in recent history. And when confronted with the incalculable cost of his incompetence and hubris, he tries to change the subject and plays politics with torture. If the American people don't punish this record in the mid-terms, then we are truly lost.