Whose War?
Though the book is not “out” until next Monday, Obama’s Wars is getting a lot of pre-publication review.
NYTimes: “Woodward Book Says Afghanistan Divided White House.” http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/22/world/asia/22policy.html?ref=politics
WashPost: “Bob Woodward book details Obama battles with advisers over exit plan for Afghan war.” http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/21/AR2010092106706.html?hpid=topnews
Mike Allen, “Playbook,”The book is net-positive for Obama, portraying him as thoughtful, decisive, seeking advice, and knowing what he knows and what he doesn’t.” I guess we’ll see about that. http://www.politico.com/playbook/0910/playbook1181.html
The reigning conspiracy theory has been that Petraeus & Co., in securing a troop increase, boxed in the President; these stories suggest that Woodward has a different story to tell.
The impact on the Afghanistan review in December looms large and the promised drawdown in July 2011 even larger. We shall see! Anyone here actually read the book yet?
Tags: Afghanistan
I haven’t read the book (and doubt I will, Woodward’s just not my cup of tea right now), and I don’t have a clue about the internal (White House, Pentagon, State Dept, et al) politics of this war.
I do harbor the small hope that Obama, in adopting his “surge” into Afghanistan late last year, successfully laid the groundwork to start pulling US troops out next summer. (By successfully, I mean so that the generals don’t try to subvert him, and so that he can bring the US involvement in this war to an end.)