Drawing on nearly 40 years of news writing focused on military issues, George C. Wilson takes the reader through a fascinating, but little understood, process: how the Pentagon and Congress spend $500,000 a minute on guns and soldiers. Interweaving personal stories and insights from the major players throughout a fast-paced narrative, Wilson provides an inside look at how the 105th Congress and the Pentagon battled for a 250 billion dollar defense budget.

Wilson demystifies the "realpolitik" among the individual armed forces and highly partisan members of Congress, as well as civilian and military leaders, thus giving a sense of the trade-offs involved on all sides. Exclusive interviews with major players—including Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen, Rep. David R. Obey, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Hugh H. Shelton—relate their distinctive perspectives on how Congress allocates and the Pentagon spends defense dollars.

Wilson takes a look ahead—with a critical eye—to the wars of the next century and asks tough questions: Are we ready for future wars or are we still preparing for the last war, the Cold War? Does the Pentagon need more money? Or can it really do its job with less?

Chapter 1. Firing the Opening Shot
Waiting for the Defense Review Beginning the Sell
Cohen's Objectives
Chapter 2. The Cautious Blueprint
Two-War Capability
Congressional Reaction
Cohen's Rebuttal
QDR Detractors
The Awkward Middle Ground
Chapter 3. Looking Through the Military's End of the Telescope
Shalikashvili: "No Billy Mitchells"
Civilian-Military Conflict
Combat: The Shaping Experience
Postscript
Chapter 4. Guns versus Butter
"Highway King" Not Impressed
The Afterglow
Would It Last?
Chapter 5. Spurning the Holy Grail
An Emerging Strategy
Obey's Explanation
Spotlighting the Joint Chiefs
Chapter 6. Heating Up the Iron
In Defense of Clinton
Joint Chiefs' "Wish List": $17.5 Billion More
Chapter 7. Realpolitik Behind the Scenes
The Retention Problem
Complicating Factors
The White House Offer
Livingston Blames, and Explains, the Process
The Upshot
Chapter 8. Is There a Better Way?
Congress "No Help"
Knowledge Is Power
Livingston's Amiable Dissent
"Impediments to Discipline"
Doubts About Missile Defense
Unresolvable Problems
Chapter 9. The Turnaround
Pay and Retirement Problems
Letters to Clinton
White House Meeting
Cohen Slam-dunks One
$288.8 Billion Approved
New "Iron Triangle"
Obey's Warning
Chapter 10. Shooting the Messenger: A Case History
High Stakes
Furor Over Privatization
The Case for Closing Bases
Preserving the Process
The Peters Memo
The Leak and Repercussions
Epilogue
Chapter 11. Peering Into the Future
Secretary of Defense Cohen
Joint Chiefs Chairman Shelton
Franklin Spinney: Pentagon Heretic
Chapter 12. Summing Up
What I Think
Greider: A Kindred Soul
It Takes a President

". . . .Whether in the beginning of a course, or as a capstone for bringing it all together, This War gives the student a real sense of how and why, at bottom, providing for national defense is a political process. Moreover, because of its concise and readable format, the book fits neatly into any segment of a course. The individual perspectives of political and military leaders throw fresh daylight on governmental processes that students and the rest of us need to understand."

- Lawrence J. Korb, Defense for Manpower, Reserve Affairs, and Logistics

George C. Wilson is the former chief defense correspondent for the Washington Post and is a columnist for Army Times, Navy Times, and Air Force Times. He is the author of the bestseller Supercarrier and numerous other books, including Flying the Edge: The Making of the Navy Test Pilots and Mud Soldiers: Life Inside the New American Army.