New book exposes battles over Afghan policy

 
Although many of internal divisions described are now public knowledge the book, Obama’s Wars, offers new details and suggests the disagreements were more intense than previously known, The New York Times reported on Tuesday. The newspaper obtained a copy of the book in advance of its scheduled release next Monday.

The book depicts an administration deeply torn over the war in Afghanistan, with the some of president’s chief advisers doubtful his new strategy will work and quarreling with each other for much of the past 20 months, the newspaper said.

The book describes Obama as a “professorial president” who assigned “homework” to advisers but bristled at what he saw as military commanders’ attempts to force him into a decision to triple troop levels in Afghanistan.

The White House had no comment on disclosures in the book on Tuesday night, the newspaper said.

Woodward, an associate editor at the Washington Post, rose to fame reporting on the Watergate scandal, which led to the registration of President Richard Nixon in 1974.
One of the excerpts from the book: Obama’s special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, is quoted as saying of the strategy that “it can’t work.”