<p>I saw part of Tom Brokaw’s Meet the Press interview with Bob Woodward this morning. This part caught my attention:</p>
<p>MR. BROKAW: We want to show a picture to our audience of a man that they probably not–do not know, but he’s extremely well known in national security circles and certainly in the military, and that’s retired four star General Jack Keane, who became kind of a subcontractor for the president and for Vice President Cheney.</p>
<p>MR. WOODWARD: Yep, a, a shadow general. And it got to the–he, he is one of the mentors for General Petraeus, the Iraq commander. And he would go to Iraq and find out what’s going on and then come for an hour or two and give a back-channel report to Dick, Dick Cheney in his home or his–in his office. And a year ago, things were so bad that the president used General Keane to send a message of support to General Petraeus. I asked the president about this war. You know, why did you do this? You have a secretary of defense, you have a central commander who’s in the chain of command. And he said, “Well, I wanted Dave to know–Dave Petraeus–that he will have exactly what he needs.” That was a year ago. Bob Gates, 10 months, had been secretary of defense, did not know that this was going on. One of the challenges the next president is going to have is to fix a very dysfunctional, broken relationship, tragically so, I believe, between the civilian side and the military side.</p>
<p>The full transcript of the Meet the Press discussion can be read here - it is brief - two pages long: [Sept</a>. 14: Former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R), Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Bob Woodward, Chuck Todd - Meet the Press, online at MSNBC - MSNBC.com](<a href=“http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26702299/page/4/]Sept”>http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26702299/page/4/)</p>
<p>Here is what the White House has to say about Woodward’s book:
[Afterword:</a> Mr. Woodward’s Reporting vs. Mr. Woodward’s Editorializing](<a href=“Briefing Room | The White House”>Briefing Room | The White House)</p>
<p>I plan to read Bing West’s “The Strongest Tribe: War, Politics, and the Endgame in Iraq” for another perspective.</p>