George Bush's Savage War of Peace

Last night on CNN, Wolf Blitzer announced that "a senior White House source" informed him that George Bush is reading Alistair Horne's A Savage War of Peace. And tonight, it seems, Blitzer will be mentioning the book again briefly.

Here's the report on CNN.com's "The Ticker." But the actual transcript is more amusing:

CNN
THE SITUATION ROOM

Aired January 12, 2007 - 17:00   ET

WOLF BLITZER: And this week at a White House briefing, I learned that as the president wrestles with the situation in Iraq, he's reading a book about another very difficult war, "A Savage War of Peace." That's the book by Alistair Horne about the battle between France and revolutionaries in its then colony of Algeria. That war occurred between 1954 and 1962. This is the book.

It describes an unsuccessful war against a bloody terrorist insurgency, an occupation that becomes a civil war between factions, a costly conflict that becomes very unpopular at home in France.

And when the president gets to page 528, if he hasn't yet, he'll find that the French withdraw and much of the French minority in Algeria ends up fleeing that country. A fascinating book with ramifications for today.

I imagine (though I don't know for certain) that the book got into the Decider's hands in the following way: Sir Alistair gave a copy to his old friend Henry Kissinger, who told him that he would "pass the book along to his 'special friend' in Washington." And the next thing you know, the book is on the presidential nightstand.

Comments

[Hector Parra]

Incredible!