A Book Reveals Doubts on Obama’s Afghan War Strategy

Barack Obama, the president of the United States of America came into power bringing along with him the inspiration of change and prosperity. While he was still campaigning for presidency, he touched the hearts of millions of people and served as inspiration to them. In fact, his strong desire for international diplomacy, dialogue for the Muslim world and the promotion of nuclear proliferation granted him the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. Along with it came numerous books about his accomplishments, views and legacy. But just like any other good movie, not all things are as good as it seems.

The U.S. President is perhaps famous for his different views with regards to the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. On February 27, 2009, Obama declared an 18-month deadline to end the war in Iraq and shift focus to Afghanistan. The growing strength of insurgency groups and the rising Allied death toll in Afghanistan has urged him to transfer his full attention to the impoverished nation. But a soon-to-be launched book says that the president’s top advisers have spent much of the last 20 months quarreling with one another over policy, personalities and turf.

The book, “Obama’s Wars,” which was written by journalist Bob Woodward, depicts the lack of confidence by some of the administration’s top advisers and members of the national security team on Obama's Afghan war plan. Interestingly, Obama’s top White House adviser on Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke, has strongly believed from the start that the strategy will not and will never work. The book also mentioned that Obama was pressing on his advisers to come up with ways to avoid a big escalation on the Afghan war and has uttered the following words, “I have two years with the public on this".

Also mentioned in the book was a private meeting where Obama allegedly mentioned the words, “I want an exit strategy”. He also asked U.S. Vice President Joe Biden to push his alternative strategy to oppose a big troop buildup. Despite not agreeing with the alternate strategy of Vice President Biden, Obama set a timetable for troop withdrawals with the following words, “I can’t lose the whole Democratic party”. The conflicts within Obama’s trusted advisers are worse than what we actually see in public.

There were accounts from the book about the former Commander for Afghanistan David Petraeus telling a While House senior aide that he disliked talking with the president’s senior adviser, David Axelrod, because he was “a complete spin doctor”. There were also incidents where Adm. Dennis Blair, the previous national intelligence director, had quarrels with Rahm Emanuel and John Brennan, the White House chief of staff and the counterterrorism adviser respectively. The book will be giving every reader a bird’s eye view of the real situation within Obama’s administration.