Technical Details
- ISBN13: 9781439172490
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed
Product Description
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.
From the Washington PostBy Steve Luxenberg, September 22, 2010:
President Obama urgently looked for a way out of the war in Afghanistan last year, repeatedly pressing his top military advisers for an exit plan that they never gave him, according to secret meeting notes and documents cited in a new book by journalist Bob Woodward.
Frustrated with his military commanders for consistently offering only options that required significantly more troops, Obama finally crafted his own strategy, dictating a classified six-page "terms sheet" that sought to limit U.S. involvement, Woodward reports in Obama's Wars.
According to Woodward's meeting-by-meeting, memo-by-memo account of the 2009 Afghan strategy review, the president avoided talk of victory as he described his objectives.
"This needs to be a plan about how we're going to hand it off and get out of Afghanistan," Obama is quoted as telling White House aides as he laid out his reasons for adding 30,000 troops in a short-term escalation. "Everything we're doing has to be focused on how we're going to get to the point where we can reduce our footprint. It's in our national security interest. There cannot be any wiggle room."
Read the full Post news report on Obama's Wars.
Similar Products
Customer Reviews
2010-10-15
By Jason Bruecks
Just finished reading Obama's Wars by Bob Woodward. I honestly stepped into this book not looking to lean to the left or lean to the right. I just wanted to wrap my head around the collaboration between the military and Washington. I wanted to get a better understanding of each person's wants and perception of the Afghan War.
I believe now I have a much better understanding of each individual and their contribution (or lack thereof) in the last two years. Whether our citizens want to continue this war or end it ...it's best to understand that this war is far more complicated than Iraq.
2010-10-15
By Mal Warwick (Berkeley, California)
We may not always say so, at least by using the same term, but what we look for in a President is, above all, leadership. Obama's Wars -- Bob Woodward's most recent behind-the-scenes report, a sort of current history -- provides a front-row seat on the leadership style of Barack Obama. As I view the scene Woodward portrays, President Obama comes off looking really good as a leader.
Obama's Wars is, essentially, an account of the months-long period in 2009 when President Obama, the members of National Security Council (including Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton), and the Pentagon brass were wrestling with one another over how to approach the war in Afghanistan. It's the stuff of which a graduate school case study in policy-making might be made -- and quite a good one at that.
If you approach this book with the often-oversimplified notion that the battle lines would break down neatly, with the generals and the admirals on one side and the civilians on the other (especially in a Democratic Administration), you'll be very surprised. As Woodward vividly shows, some of the most dogged opposition to the proposed U.S. troop buildup in Afghanistan came from military men, both active and retired. And one of the most consistently hawkish figures in the exhausting debate was Secretary Clinton.
But even those characterizations are highly misleading. The debate Obama led in 2009 about the Afghanistan war was an immensely complex matter with a multitude of possible policy outcomes -- none of them good. The resulting compromise -- and it was that, after all -- incorporated ideas from all sides. However, if a good compromise is marked by making "both" sides equally unhappy, Obama's compromise was a curious one. It appears to have made "both" sides happy. The Pentagon exulted in receiving a large number of fresh troops for Afghanistan, believing that conditions on the ground there would require them to pursue their recommended tactics despite opposition from the White House, and convinced that the July 2011 withdrawal data Obama insisted on would slip by months and years. The political staff in the White House, by contrast, were content to give the generals the extra troops, believing that conditions on the ground would make it impossible for them to pursue their recommended tactics and knowing that the President would insist on sticking with the July 2011 date for the beginning of a withdrawal.
What most impressed me about Barack Obama -- and I firmly believe historians of the future will bear this out -- was the fortitude he displayed in resisting simple-minded formulas and half-baked claims. In the course of the great debate about Afghanistan, there was an abundance of both. The President, with considerable support from Vice President Joe Biden, more than held his own with the military brass. And, judging from the history of our last half-dozen Presidents or so, that's saying a lot.
Woodward's strength as a reporter is that he gets the story right -- or so it would appear, since to the best of my memory no one has ever successfully refuted any of the incidents reported in his books. He relies on intensive and repeated interviews with all the principals. (After all, who would dare turn down the man who toppled Richard Nixon's Presidency?) Even if a statement here or an interpretation there may be off a few degrees, Obama's Wars can give you the feeling that you are witnessing up close one of the most fateful national policy debates of recent years.
(From Mal Warwick's Blog on Books)
2010-10-14
By Judith A. Murphy
Bob Woodward has written another great book. It is not nearly as snazzy as "All The President's Men" nor nearly as snoozy as "State of Denial" It is a great in depth portrayal of this president and the copious entanglements with which he has to deal and Lead !
(you are welcome to stop reading here)
I admit, I am an Obama supporter and always was. (full disclosure)
But this book should make anyone a supporter. Obama inherits the biggest mess this generation has ever seen and somehow he manages to ask the right questions walk the thinnest of tight ropes and risk his own personal popularity to do what is right for this country. I like this book not because it is a glorious tale of a Magnificent President - no it is not. It is, as Bob Woodward said, an unvarnished tale of what happens in the Obama white house. And if you compare it to "State Of Denial" you know that Change Has Come!
On the down side - the book deals almost exclusively with the Afghan war - which is intricate and complex to say the least. I would have liked to know more about how Obama led on the Health Care Reform Bill - or failed to lead, and why he has doned this dispassionate style. Also what does Obama think of the Rise of the RIGHT ? What does his cabinet think of it ?
The book mainly deals with the wars...and the ways Obama is trying to manage all the evils Bush has set free from Pandora's Box. And while the war is just part of the Presidency the governing style tells us what we need to know about our President.
You do not have to come away supporting the President after reading this book...it is open to interpretation...but I think you must respect the thoughtful decision making when you compare it to his predecessor...and when you weigh the previous administration. And look at the comments from McCain...what would THAT Presidency have looked like ?
2010-10-14
By James W. Perego (Cuyahoga Falls,OH)
I am about half way thru this very interesting and enlightening book. Sadly, I must say that the people in the book who are trying to figure out how to deal with the war remind me of nothing more then the old saying about "running around in circles of ever diminishig size until you disappear". Afghanistan is a 14th century country and it will remain so long after the people in this book are dead and buried. I fear our effort will be futile.
2010-10-14
By John Beowulf (Eastern Sierra)
I think Bob Woodward has sort of run his course in history. In a nutshell, Woodward's book just documents the personalities surrounding POTUS and how they all have their own agendas. Sadly, many brave troops will die as these egos dither and position themselves. This book does not really have any new revelation. It was pretty obvious when Obama took over a year to decide Aghanistan strategy, that America was being poorly led and early failure was written all over the Obama Administration.
Bob Woodward falls into the catagory of "Obama Believer" and probably voted for him thinking he was a black JFK. Obama has proven however that he has neither the character, or composition of JFK. He is more like a wimpy Malcom X. Only liberal Americans fell under the spell that Obama represented hope and change which was really kinda funny since everyone who knew Obama on a personal level knows how unwilling he is to make big descisions. For example, one of his poker buddies said "Obama likes to just make $2 bets, drink 2 beers, and smoke 2 cigarettes." That does not sound like someone who thinks outside the box to me. In fact, that seems like the behavior of someone who is unwilling to take chances and instead lives the status quo. Obama banked his presidency on "hope and change" but he was clearly unable to offer anything new, other than skin color. For some people, like Woodward, that was enough. He tries hard to make Obama look like a capable leader all though the backroom deals and debates. But the book really describes someone who just wasn't ready to take the helm of a great nation like America, and provide the kind of leadership it needs. Embroiled in wars, financially and morally bankrupt, America is ready to fall. Obama's legacy in history may very well prove to be like that of Odocer, the Roman emperor of Barbarian decent who divided and then destroyed the empire.
Interestingly, Richard Holbrooke the career diplomat comes under the gun many times with what seems like personal attacks from Woodward. Yet, Holbrooke is the only insider who seems on the ball and understands the big picture. Holbrooke's assesment is that Obama's troop surge and Afghanistan policy is headed toward failure. He is the one brave soul speaking the truth. But what do you expect from politicians and lackies who think blaming Bush is leadership?
No comments:
Post a Comment