OMNI WAR WATCH WEDNESDAYS, #200, OCTOBER 23, 2024.

 

OMNI WAR WATCH WEDNESDAYS, #200, OCTOBER 23, 2024.  Compiled by Dick Bennett

Jewish Voice for Peace. Stop Israel’s Genocide in Gaza.

Bob Woodward.  War.   Publisher’s description.
Andrew Cockburn. Note on Bob Woodward’s War.
Scott Horton.  Letter to Woodward about War.

JEWISH VOICE FOR PEACE
Dear Dick,

 If you’re feeling gutted and unsure of how to move forward, as Israel’s genocide in Gaza only deepens and expands into the region, you are not alone. It’s in these very times that we need to come together — because we can only stop the bombs through collective action. 
Join the quarterly JVP Virtual Mass Meeting on Wednesday, October 30, 7:30-9pm ET, as we assess this moment and move forward together. 

RSVP now

 

 

Bob Woodward.  War.  Simon and Schuster, 2024. 

Publisher’s description:
Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Bob Woodward tells the revelatory, behind-the-scenes story of three wars—Ukraine, the Middle East, and the struggle for the American Presidency.  War is an intimate and sweeping account of one of the most tumultuous periods in presidential politics and American history. 
We see President Joe Biden and his top advisers in tense conversations with Russian president Vladimir Putin, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. We also see Donald Trump, conducting a shadow presidency and seeking to regain political power.    With unrivaled, inside-the-room reporting, Woodward shows President Biden’s approach to managing the war in Ukraine, the most significant land war in Europe since World War II, and his tortured path to contain the bloody Middle East conflict between Israel and the terrorist group Hamas.  Woodward reveals the extraordinary complexity and consequence of wartime back-channel diplomacy and decision-making to deter the use of nuclear weapons and a rapid slide into World War III.  The raw cage-fight of politics accelerates as Americans prepare to vote in 2024, starting between President Biden and Trump, and ending with the unexpected elevation of Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee for president.  War provides an unvarnished examination of the vice president as she tries to embrace the Biden legacy and policies while beginning to chart a path of her own as a presidential candidate.
Woodward’s reporting once again sets the standard for journalism at its most authoritative and illuminating.

[The following two notes anticipate the composition of full, critical reviews, which I will be looking for.  –D.]

Andrew Cockburn.  “Woodward Reports the Cuss Words, Skips the Facts.  Another Misleading Tome from the Court Historian.”    American Committee for US-Russia Accord  (Oct 21, 2024).  To anyone who has slogged through Bob Woodward’s serial tomes, his latest, War, will come as no surprise.  Its obsequious treatment of select senior officials grappling with the Ukrainian and middle east wars  runs true to form. Just in case readers miss the point, he concludes with the assertion that “President Biden and his team will […]    Read in browser »
Some of Cockburn’s books: The Threat: Inside the Soviet Military Machine. 1983.  Dangerous Liaison: The Inside Story of the US-Israeli Covert Relationship, with Leslie Cockburn. 1991.   Rumsfeld: His Rise, Fall, and Catastrophic Legacy.  2007. Kill Chain: The Rise of the High-Tech Assassins. 2015. The Spoils of War: Power, Profit and the American War Machine, 2021.

Scott Horton.   “Bob Woodward Badly Misquotes Russian FM Lavrov in His New Book.”   ACURA (Oct 21, 2024).     Woodward misquoted Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on page 88 of your new book, and significantly altered the meaning of his statement.
Read in browser »   Our mailing address is:   The American Committee for US-Russia Accord PO Box 2134 New York, NY 10025
Scott Horton is editorial director of Antiwar.com, director of the Libertarian Institute, host of Antiwar Radio on Pacifica, 90.7 FM KPFK in Los Angeles, California and podcasts the Scott Horton Show from ScottHorton.org. He’s the author of the 2017 book, Fool’s Errand: Time to End the War in Afghanistan.

[I watched an interview of Woodward about his book on PBS Newshour in which Woodward’s arguments followed the official line on the Ukraine, and the interviewer failed to press him.  –D]

 

 

 

END OMNI WAR WATCH WEDNESDAYS, #200, OCTOBER 23, 2024.