Bob Woodward has done it again. His new book, “Plan of Attack,” is a compelling account of how the administration went to war in Iraq after first creating a war plan behind the scenes. The process was a bitter battle that left Secretary of State Colin Powell on the outside looking in as Vice President Dick Cheney pulled strings to get back to the “unfinished business” of Iraq. It was Cheney who orchestrated an in-house battle that clearly pitted Powell against most of the others.

Woodward’s book comes on the heels of another controversial book, “Against All Enemies,” which hit the bookstores a month ago. This one was written by Richard A. Clarke, a former intelligence officer and chief of counterterrorism during several administrations over more than two decades. Clarke charged that the Bush administration forged ahead against Saddam Hussein with no exit strategy after attacking Iraq. He further alleges that the Bush administration squandered the opportunity to eliminate al-Qaida, allowing it to grow, in part, because of our own actions and inactions.

“Plan of Attack” is fascinating because it is an inside look at Bush as leader in a room full of sycophants. His book makes the administration transparent and reveals what really went on. The picture is not a pretty one, showing how vulnerable the nation was as egos clashed.

Woodward appeared with Mike Wallace on CBS’ “60 Minutes” last Sunday and revealed some stunning inside information.

Speaking of the president, Woodward tells Wallace, “He just kind of out of the blue said, ‘It’s the story of the 21st century’ — his decision to undertake this war and start a pre-emptive attack on another country.”

He quotes President Bush as saying, “We will rid the world of the evildoers.”

Woodward also reports that just five days after Sept. 11, 2001, President Bush indicated to his national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, that while he had to do Afghanistan first, he was also determined to do something about Saddam Hussein, which dovetails with Woodward’s reports of building pressure to go after the Iraqi tyrant.

When Wallace asked about the source of the pressure, Woodward says: “Don Rumsfeld said, ‘This is an opportunity to take out Saddam Hussein. Perhaps we could consider it.’ And the president says to Condi Rice, meeting head to head, ‘We won’t do Iraq now. But it’s a question we’re going to have to return to.’ And, and there’s this low boil on Iraq until the day before Thanksgiving Nov. 21, 2001. This is 72 days after 9/11. … President Bush, after a National Security Council meeting, takes Don Rumsfeld aside, collars him physically … and takes him into a little cubbyhole room and closes the door and says, ‘What have you got in terms of plans for Iraq? What is the status of the war plan? I want you to get on it. I want you to keep it secret.”‘

Immediately after that, according to Woodward, Rumsfeld told Gen. Tommy Franks to develop a war plan to invade Iraq and remove Saddam, and gave Franks a blank check.

Woodward said, “It gets to a point where in July — the end of July 2002, they need $700 million — a large amount of money for all of these tasks, and the president approves it, but Congress doesn’t know, and it is done. They get the money from a supplemental appropriation for the Afghan war, which Congress has approved.

Not since Joe McGinniss’ book on Richard Nixon, “The Selling of the President 1968,” has any reporter gotten so deep inside the workings of power. “Plan of Attack” is an intriguing look at the George W. Bush administration and many of its key players at work. Woodward also reveals that oil prices will fall dramatically, to spur the economy just before next fall’s election.

Like so many things we seldom hear about unless we get an inside look, much of what we learn was prearranged as a part of a secret history.

Claude Lewis is a retired columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer.