Journalist & author Bob Woodward thinks that Osama Bin Laden didn’t read his book closely enough. If he did, he might not have lived in the Pakistan hideout.
Woodward shared his opinion with The Washington Post after news came out that his book was among 38 other English language titles on Bin Laden’s book shelf during the raid on his compound in Pakistan. This information was published along with a number of documents that were declassified by the government this week. Here is what Woodward had to say to The Post:
“If he read ‘Obama’s Wars,’ bin Laden’s takeaway should have been Obama does not like war but is willing to use lethal force,” Woodward said in an e-mail. “The American commander-in-chief in fact prefers covert Special Forces raids targeted and aimed at capturing or killing known high-value terrorist in their hideouts. A close reading might have sent him back to a mountain cave. Follow-on reading about Nixon (“All the President’s Men” and “The Final Days”) could have shown him the destructive power of hate. As Nixon said, ‘When you hate your enemies, you destroy yourself.’ ”