Woodward: Obama demanded exit strategy for Afghanistan. "I'm not doing 10 years."

[jefferson_dem]

Bob Woodward book details Obama battles with advisers over exit plan for Afghan war

By Steve Luxenberg
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 22, 2010; 12:11 AM

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," to be released on Monday.

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."

Obama rejected the military's request for 40,000 troops as part of an expansive mission that had no foreseeable end. "I'm not doing 10 years," he told Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton at a meeting on Oct. 26, 2009. "I'm not doing long-term nation-building. I am not spending a trillion dollars."

<SNIP>

MUCH MORE HERE - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/21/AR2010092106706_pf.html

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[vaberella]

2. What are you talking about man?! Seriously.

You are not reading the article. It was Obama who dictated what was going on and he's the one calling the shots. Yet, you claim he's lead around like a dog. You didn't read the article. He created the exit plan and he's getting us out cause he's not about to stay in a war. I don't know why you're using November like it's at threat either.

[jefferson_dem]

4. Another illustration of how the right does not corner the market on "Truthiness".

[izquierdista]

13. Oh, he's about it all right

Still thinks he can outsmart every one and conduct a land war in Asia and come out smelling like a rose. He should have done like Kucinich would have, take every proposal for increasing troops, turn it on its head and tell his generals "OK, now run this play backwards and take this many troops OUT of Afghanistan".

The Audacity of Hype indeed!

[vaberella]

16. What kind of tripe are you sending my way? Then vote him out in 2012 & put Kucinich in. n/t

[jefferson_dem]

3. Did you even read the piece?

"...Obama finally crafted his own strategy, dictating a classified six-page "terms sheet"..."

DLC? Lordy. Please wake up. This is not 1994. Time to find a new bogeyman.

[impik]

7. They don't read anything anymore. They'll crap on him even if

he'll bring world peace tomorrow.

[izquierdista]

14. That he can't do

World peace doesn't come in a drone.

[bushisanidiot]

9. +1

/

[Champion Jack]

5. Read the damn article before you spew

[alcibiades_mystery]

6. saigon68

You know I love you, man, but you're wrong on this one.

[DCBob]

11. incredible..

What is wrong with some of you people? You are drunk on your hatred of this President. Sickening.

[mopinko]

8. presidents may be cic, but the brass have nothing but contempt

for civilian control. sign the budget, point to a country to invade, then get out of the way- that's their idea of a chain of command. completely out of hand. the dangers of a standing army.

[flpoljunkie]

10. So, it seems.Very pleased to read this quote from President Obama on what he 'will not want to hear'

The president is quoted as telling Mullen, Petraeus and Gates: "In 2010, we will not be having a conversation about how to do more. I will not want to hear, 'We're doing fine, Mr. President, but we'd be better if we just do more.' We're not going to be having a conversation about how to change . . . unless we're talking about how to draw down faster than anticipated in 2011."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/21/AR2010092106706_3.html?sid=ST2010092106707

[Vinca]

12. If this is what the POTUS thought, he should have demanded an exit strategy.

[Peacetrain]

15. Refusing to look at the whole truth has become an illness, The President put the Military on notice

We are coming out.. and he had to do his own plan.. sans military.. You would think, that people who want us to come home, have a time line.. would at least bother to read the article..

"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."

Obama rejected the military's request for 40,000 troops as part of an expansive mission that had no foreseeable end. "I'm not doing 10 years," he told Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton at a meeting on Oct. 26, 2009. "I'm not doing long-term nation-building. I am not spending a trillion dollars."

Obama is shown at odds with his uniformed military commanders, particularly Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Gen. David H. Petraeus, head of U.S. Central Command during the 2009 strategy review and now the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan.

Woodward reveals their conflicts through detailed accounts of two dozen closed-door secret strategy sessions and nearly 40 private conversations between Obama and Cabinet officers, key aides and intelligence officials.

[harun]

17. Why is the plan for withdrawal always met with massive injections

of troops, violence and money?

(rhetorical question)

[indepat]

18. It's a shame BHO could not have required the military to develop a plan to get out ASAP

:shrug:

[dreamnightwind]

19. this doesn't smell right

I think Woodward is a professional liar for the powers that be.

If, however, this story is true, we need to have Obama's back on this. He'll be in a scary situation with regards to a military that has its own agenda. And Petraeus has his eyes on occupying the White House himself.

What if Woodward is doing the work of Petraeus here, setting up Obama as a leftist dove who won't try for victory in Afghanistan? If this narrative gains traction, that'll be exactly what they'll throw at Obama in 2012.

[CTLawGuy]

20. lalala I can't hear you lalala I can't hear you

he's just like Bush, he's just like Bush lalala