Woodward Book Portrays Obama Aides’ Battles

[WestVirginiaRebel]

NY Times:

WASHINGTON Some of the critical players in President Obamas national security team doubt his strategy in Afghanistan will succeed and have spent much of the last 20 months quarreling with one another over policy, personalities and turf, according to a new book.

The book, Obamas Wars, by the journalist Bob Woodward, depicts an administration deeply torn over the war in Afghanistan even as the president agreed to triple troop levels there amid suspicion that he was being boxed in by the military. Mr. Obamas top White House adviser on Afghanistan and his special envoy for the region are described as believing the strategy will not work.

The president concluded from the start that I have two years with the public on this and pressed advisers for ways to avoid a big escalation, the book says. I want an exit strategy, he implored at one meeting. Privately, he told Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. to push his alternative strategy opposing a big troop buildup in meetings, and while Mr. Obama ultimately rejected it, he set a withdrawal timetable because, I cant lose the whole Democratic Party.

But Mr. Biden is not the only one who harbors doubts about the strategys chances for success. Lt. Gen. Douglas E. Lute, the presidents Afghanistan adviser, is described as believing that the presidents review did not add up to the decision he made. Richard C. Holbrooke, the presidents special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, is quoted saying of the strategy that it cant work.

Mr. Woodward, the longtime Washington Post reporter and editor, was granted extensive access to administration officials and documents for his account, including an interview with Mr. Obama. The New York Times obtained a copy of the book before its publication by Simon & Schuster, scheduled for next week. The White House had no comment on the book Tuesday night.
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The country's in the very best of hands. From the article:

The book also reports that the United States has intelligence showing that manic-depression has been diagnosed in President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan and that he was on medication, but adds no details. Mr. Karzais mood swings have been a challenge for the Obama administration.

As for Mr. Obama himself, the book describes a professorial president who assigned homework to advisers but bristled at what he saw as military commanders attempts to force him into a decision he was not yet comfortable with. Even after he agreed to send another 30,000 troops last winter, the Pentagon asked for another 4,500 enablers to support them.

The president lost his poise, according to the book. Im done doing this! he erupted.

Well, I feel much more confident now...

[AceRimmer]

Obambi will be remembered in the history books after all! He's going to screw up Afghanistan like LBJ screwed up in Vietnam!

 

He's already got a Nixon-style enemies list, now all we need is a new version of the Pentagon Papers, or a third-rate burglary of RNC Headquarters(that wouldn't just happen to be at the Watergate, would it?), and we've got a trifecta of bungling!

[WestVirginiaRebel]

A combination of LBJ, Nixon, and Carter. Obama's slogan for 2012 should be: Three bad Presidents for the price of one!

 

(Actually, maybe that should be "Two and a half bad Presidents," as I don't think Nixon was really bad until Watergate.)

[Stella]

This book shows how ill prepared and immature Obama really is. I always felt he didn't want to be President of all of us but only of those that agree with him. He cares more about what the Democratic Party thinks than the safety of all of us. He is a perfect example when the country elects an ill prepared person for POTUS. The man has never been anything but a community organizer. It's all he knows how to do. He has never had to be a mediator or a decision maker and he doesn't know how to do these things.

[AceRimmer]

A combination of LBJ, Nixon, and Carter. Obama's slogan for 2012 should be: Three bad Presidents for the price of one!

 

(Actually, maybe that should be "Two and a half bad Presidents," as I don't think Nixon was really bad until Watergate.)

 

There's an old Vulcan proverb: "Only Nixon could go to China." Next to Ronald Reagan, the only POTUS who scared the Soviet Union(I mean, REALLY scared them) was Tricky Dick. He also scared the North Vietnamese back to the peace talks in Paris with Linebacker II, when he bombed them almost into the ground...