This is an excellent analysis, although I don't agree with Hitchens on all of the details. I wasn't going to read the book, but I received it as a Christmas gift so I did.
I found it superficial and heavily weighted towards the State Department. What was most irrritating to me was the inference that the conquest of Afghanistan was almost an accident. This comes, no doubt, from the fact that the Defense Department didn't give Woodward much information.
Interesting. I read it just last month. I thought it was a great read. Superficial? Maybe I suppose, but so would anything written by someone not actually an "insider". Woodward is a journalist, and as such would be treated like an outsider to the "war council" group. That he was able to show any of the inner working of the administration was surprising to me.
I thought the book was surprisingly favorable toward the administration.