Obama's Wars

· Simon and Schuster
3.1
15 reviews
Ebook
464
Pages

About this ebook

In Obama’s Wars, Bob Woodward provides the most intimate and sweeping portrait yet of the young president as commander in chief. Drawing on internal memos, classified documents, meeting notes and hundreds of hours of interviews with most of the key players, including the president, Woodward tells the inside story of Obama making the critical decisions on the Afghanistan War, the secret campaign in Pakistan and the worldwide fight against terrorism.

At the core of Obama’s Wars is the unsettled division between the civilian leadership in the White House and the United States military as the president is thwarted in his efforts to craft an exit plan for the Afghanistan War.

“So what’s my option?” the president asked his war cabinet, seeking alternatives to the Afghanistan commander’s request for 40,000 more troops in late 2009. “You have essentially given me one option. ...It’s unacceptable.”

“Well,” Secretary of Defense Robert Gates finally said, “Mr. President, I think we owe you that option.”

It never came. An untamed Vice President Joe Biden pushes relentlessly to limit the military mission and avoid another Vietnam. The vice president frantically sent half a dozen handwritten memos by secure fax to Obama on the eve of the final troop decision.

President Obama’s ordering a surge of 30,000 troops and pledging to start withdrawing U.S. forces by July 2011 did not end the skirmishing.

General David Petraeus, the new Afghanistan commander, thinks time can be added to the clock if he shows progress. “I don’t think you win this war,” Petraeus said privately. “This is the kind of fight we’re in for the rest of our lives and probably our kids’ lives.”

Hovering over this debate is the possibility of another terrorist attack in the United States. The White House led a secret exercise showing how unprepared the government is if terrorists set off a nuclear bomb in an American city—which Obama told Woodward is at the top of the list of what he worries about all the time.

Verbatim quotes from secret debates and White House strategy sessions—and firsthand accounts of the thoughts and concerns of the president, his war council and his generals—reveal a government in conflict, often consumed with nasty infighting and fundamental disputes.

Woodward has discovered how the Obama White House really works, showing that even more tough decisions lie ahead for the cerebral and engaged president.

Obama’s Wars offers the reader a stunning, you-are-there account of the president, his White House aides, military leaders, diplomats and intelligence chiefs in this time of turmoil and danger.

Ratings and reviews

3.1
15 reviews
A Google user
March 5, 2012
Reading Woodward's dissection of the foreign policy planning process determining how many troops we would commit to Afghanistan, for how long & whether we would pursue a counterinsurgency or counterterrorism or hybrid of the two nearly 18 months after the action is an illuminating exercise. It becomes patently clear that so many different agendas crowded the negotiating table that it was almost impossible to reconcile them all into a single cogent position. Obama's team of brilliant & not so brilliant (if one believes the somewhat snide commentary of Woodward's anonymous sources) advisers held diversely divergent views on which best policies to implement.Not one to give away any of the plot points (for those who are not political junkies) I will not share who it was that withheld critical info from the President or who it was who repeatedly ignored the President's request for real options or who assiduously watched the President's back. All of those delicious bits of gossip are the secret ingredients that makes this political autopsy so lip smacking readable. However, I do believe, to a small extent that Woodward has let us down. Even though he stitches together an amazing array of minute details that creates a "bug on the wall" sensation there is still the lurking feeling of not knowing how Obama actually feels about this enormous political canker sore sucking the energy & life from his administration. And, perhaps, I'm being unfair to Woodward, and that what we really have here is that no one truly knows what Obama is feeling.
A Google user
May 3, 2011
Gives exposure, shows the conflicts, paints the big picture, fills in the background, easy to read, clear, a very good book. It does, however, plough into endless, time-consuming, Obama government-type meetings that seem to bear little result. A war run by hacks looking for consensus? That part truly dragged the the story down. Indecision in a mire without a clear definitine, desirable, obtainable end.
A Google user
October 2, 2010
'Obama's Wars": an extended behind-the-scenes examination detailing how the Obama administration handled the involvement in Afghanistan. So, what? J.P. Miller.Cambridge, MA

About the author

Bob Woodward is an associate editor at The Washington Post, where he has worked for more than 50 years. He has shared in two Pulitzer Prizes, one for his Watergate coverage and the other for coverage of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He has authored 21 bestselling books, 15 of which have been #1 New York Times bestsellers.

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