The Juicy Bits in Woodward's Book (Daily Beast)

[chimpymustgo]

Daily Beast

by Bryan Curtis

-edit-

We know Obama committed 30,000 new troops to Afghanistan last December, and promised to start the withdrawal in 18 months. What mystery is Woodward trying to solve? He’s trying to figure out whether Obama got rolled by the military.

Did he?
Woodward does not exactly say. But he demonstrates convincingly that the men in uniform—that would be David Petraeus, Stanley McChrystal, and Mike Mullen, along with Bob Gates—dangled very few battle plans in front of Obama, and used bureaucratic jujitsu to make sure he didn’t see others. For example, Obama never had a fully fleshed-out proposal for sending fewer than 30,000 new troops to Afghanistan. And even the final proposal he crafted himself, lowering the military’s demands a tad. As Petraeus says, after being informed of a slight from Pennsylvania Avenue, “They’re fucking with the wrong guy.”

How’d they get away with it?
In addition to being master bureaucratic infighters, the generals are genius P.R. men. Woodward recounts scene after scene of Petraeus talking to the press when he’s specifically been ordered to stand down. Once, just before a Situation Room meeting with Obama, he made a surprise CNN appearance from the White House briefing room.

What’s my news headline when it comes out September 27?
“AIDES DON’T BUY AFGHAN PLAN.”

EDITED BY ADMIN: COPYRIGHT

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-09-22/bob-woodwards-obamas-wars-reviewed/?om_rid=MMBIx0&om_mid=_BMml9mB8U108xQ

[FrenchieCat]

1. Cool!

40 days before the election!

I'll read the book after,
when I have time....

and will give it the same skepticism I did,
when Woodward has written his books on the
last administration......and will understand
that he wasn't everywhere all of the time,
and his is his take.

Thanks!

[UTUSN]

2. What WOODWARD & whores expose is their shock-SHOCK that the Prez wasn't kissing PATRAEUS ass

I can hardly wait to smack down Scabs in a e-mail with this point---that they all assumed that the Prez was a wimp and was only going part-way with the surge to grab the manly-man lifeline of PATRAEUS. What a revelation, that there was actual debate and the possibility that the hawks would be overruled!1

[chimpymustgo]

3. Petraeus does not come out of this smelling good.