Obama's Wars

In the author's personal note to this book, Bob Woodward thanks his assistant Josh Bock with words of such kindness that I was completely taken aback by the grace that this man possesses. Many writers wouldn't take the time, or interest to be so encouraging to someone else. Woodward's writing has the poet's touch. It is elegant, straightforward, and of such compelling interest that this book like many others he has written, is a page turner. You start it, and you just keep going until you are finished. First we must discuss his sources and methods. This author doesn't publish unless he has confirmation of what he is being told by an additional 3rd party. His interviews are recorded, transcribed and then checked for errors. He sometimes revisits the same interviewee 4 or 5 times. He works with notes, documents and recollections. Although a person being interviewed may request that it be background only, once Woodward gets the same story from another independent source, the story is no longer background. Many people have talked to Woodward on the basis of background in an effort to remain anonymous, and control him. It just doesn't remain that way. You are not going to fool this man. When you read Obama's Wars, you realize that you can't obtain this much great information if you read a year's worth of the New York Times. You are getting the real deal here, and you don't get it anywhere else. Let me illustrate: * When meeting President Bush's intelligence officer and hearing what he had to say prior to the election, then Senator Obama responds that he was worried about losing this election, now he's worried about winning the election with the information he is being told. * Woodward confirms for us that Pakistani intelligence, the so called ISI has been giving aide to the Taliban, while taking $2 billion a year in cash from us. * During the first half of 2008, the US made only 4 Predator strikes in Pakistan. Pakistan made the US warn the ISI ahead of time before a strike could be made. The ISI in turn would warn the Taliban and the bad guys would head for the hills prior to the strike. Once American got wise to the setup, we only gave the ISI simultaneous warning, and frankly we waited until the Predator was ready to fire its missiles before giving that warning. Where are you going to get information like this? I don't see it in the Washington Post, and certainly not the NY Times. * President Obama was informed that 35 countries do not require Visas prior to coming to the United States. Terrorists are now coming to the US through those countries and forming cells. Our worst nightmare may be yet to come. * Iran will have a gun-type nuclear weapon between 2013 and 2015 which will be demonstrated in the desert. Saudi Arabia will immediately notify Pakistan that you help us develop a nuclear weapon, or we cut off oil supplies to your country. * Then Senator Obama was the victim of a cyber attack on his campaign by the Chinese government that copied his documents and files. The greater danger was what would happen if they destroyed the files as opposed to just copying them. The same thing happened to Senator McCain and his campaign. * But Wait - there's more. Senator Obama was then told that every day both the Bank of NY and Citibank handle $3 trillion a day in funds transfers, whereas the entire economy is equal to $14 trillion in gross domestic product. Other countries now have the capability to interfere with those transactions through cyber war. The resulting financial chaos would be exponentially worse than the World Trade Center destruction. We do not have a cyber defense yet. Woodward is at his best when discussing personalities. His discussion of Hillary Clinton's reluctance, then refusal and finally acceptance of the Cabinet position of Secretary of State is absolutely fascinating. Senator Clinton did not want the position, but Senator Obama's people sensed the door was still opened, so they told her to sleep on it over night. During the night Senator Clinton consulted Mark Penn, the Clinton pollster who basically asked her if she was crazy. Take it, "you will have an unmatched record of public service." He also reminded her that you are weak on foreign policy and national security, and now you will have absolute bonafides in both, and it didn't hurt that you she will finally show independence from her husband. Yes, there's Richard Holbrooke the egotist, and General Petraeus comes through looking great. No one lays a glove on the General. The Secretary of Defense Robert Gates gets very high marks in the book. Over and over again, when you read Woodward, you recognize that the story you are reading is not something that is covered anywhere else. You are a part of the decision making process. You are involved. You know who makes sense and who doesn't, who's brilliant, and who's all talk, and no show. I have given you pieces here and pieces there, a flavoring of a giant ice cream Sundae. Every page has a great story, and there is nothing superfluous in this great read. This book gets five stars. If you love politics, a good story, history, and reading what a great author operating at the peak of his powers can do, read Obama's Wars, and thank you for reading this review. Richard C. Stoyeck

Bob Woodward has become the go-to guy to chronicle the inside story of how Washington operates. His latest book, OBAMA'S WAR, details how President Barack Obama presided over a year-long study that led to an expansion of the American war in Afghanistan. It is a convoluted, fascinating read that gives the reader unique insights into Obama and the leading characters of his Administration. Woodward paints a portrait of Obama that is generally positive. He describes the young president as a thoughtful chief executive who maintains his cool among the hotheads that he has surrounded himself in the White House. And like most White House administrations there is considerable infighting among Obama's aides. Woodward gives us a gossipy version of how Obama arrived at his decision to send an additional 30,000 American troops to Afghanistan. We get the mindset of the principal players, including Vice President Joe Biden (a chattering nabob who serves as a brake on some of the other hawks on the White House staff); national Security Adviser Gen. James Jones, a well respected military chief who seems to be in over his head politically; Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, who is a loyal, if cautious adviser to Obama, and chief of staff Rham Emanuel who is a profane, rambunctious lieutenant who cracks the whip with a hair trigger in an effort to get things done. Richard Holbrook, the man who would be Secretary of State under a Hilary Clinton Administration, loses the confidence of Obama as he (Holbrook) fails to resolve the enigma of a Muslim Pakistani nation that is trapped by its fear of India. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates comes off as a wily, practical politician who remains faithful to his command structure and the troops in the Afghan theater of war. Army Gen. David Petraeus is depicted as a cautious, but media savvy, politic military commander who successfully walks a high tension wire between his bosses at the Pentagon, the White House staff and the political heavy weights in Congress. Woodward describes Gen. Stan McCrystal as probably the best field commander for the war in Afghanistan - but who stumbles over his inability to keep his mouth shut. Woodward also gives the reader useful insights into the politics of both Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as the intricacies of the geopolitical framework of the Middle East. Woodward always amazes with his ability to wring information out of the key players in Washington. Clearly everyone from Obama on down talked to Woodward. He quotes frequently from Jones' private notebooks, for example, and his extensive verbatim quotes from all the key players indicate he had virtually unfettered access to the White House and the Pentagon. An unexplained mystery is who gave Woodward the copy of McCrystal's top secret, highly restricted assessment of the war in Afghanistan? After considering the likely culprits, this reviewer suggests that the culprit was either Petraeus, DOD chief Gates, Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff, Mike Mullen, or most likely Richard Holbrook. Whoever it was, Woodward couldn't wait for publication of his book and published a page 1 story in the Washington Post nearly a year ago. The details of how Woodward and his editors at the Post negotiated publication of the report with the White House team are fascinating. While Obama comes off reasonably well in this book, his legacy of course will depend on the final outcome of his war in Afghanistan. The reader should remember that in his four books on the Bush war in Iraq and Afghanistan, Woodward also gave George W Bush high marks early on, but in the final book, THE WAR WITHIN, Woodward described Bush as "intolerant of confrontations and in-depth debate.... he never got a handle on it and over these years of war, too often he failed to lead." Even ace reporter Bob Woodward can be fickle, it seems, and while OBAMA'S WAR is a fascinating read, it is by no means the final word on a very difficult war in a far-off land that has never been permanently conquered. While Woodward successfully connects the dots thus far, the full story of hte AfPak War remains elusive -- and will remain so for a long time in the future.

本書は２００９年１２月に米国が発表したアフガニスタン新戦略を中心に、米国のアフガン政策の決定過程を詳述した力作である。世界的な話題作なのだが、残念なことにまだ日本語訳が出ていない。苦労しつつも何とか原文で読破してみたが、それだけの価値がある作品だということが良くわかった。 本書の主題は、アフガニスタン政策をめぐる米国の文民指導層と軍人指導層の対立とされる。よくある図式に見えがちだが、実態はそう単純ではない。ペトレイアス・マクリスタル両将軍の４万人増派論にはマレン統合参謀本部議長のみならず、ゲイツ国防長官、さらにはクリントン国務長官も同調していた。他方、パキスタンのテロ勢力に焦点を移し、より小規模の増派を訴えるバイデン副大統領には、カートライト統合参謀本部副議長が同調している。このように、文民指導層も軍人指導層も必ずしも一枚岩ではなかったことが分かる。注目すべきは、筆者も指摘しているとおり、少なくともアフガニスタンについては、ゲイツ長官は軍人指導層の意見を受け容れがちであるということ、そしてバイデン副大統領の影響力が無視できない程大きくなっていることである。特に後者の点については、日本では米国の副大統領の重みが近年増していることがほとんど理解されていないため、重要だと思われる。 本書を読んで最も印象に残ったのが、米国大統領という職責の重さである。大統領に当選した者は就任前に情報機関の長からインテリジェンスのブリーフィングを受けるが、本書はまさにそのシーンから始まる。勿論、大統領就任後の重要な外交決断は全て大統領が決めなくてはならない。上述のアフガニスタン戦略が最もいい例であり、オバマは政府部内の様々な意見を踏まえ、皆が納得できる政策を打ち出さなくてはならなかった。本書の大部分は、ホワイトハウスでオバマが、アフガンに関する様々な戦略オプションを持ち寄った政府高官達に矢継ぎ早に的確な質問を繰り出しているシーンで占められる。戦略目標、ミッションといった抽象的な事柄から延々と議論していくので退屈な箇所も少なくないのだが、様々なオプションを上手に扱うオバマに強い印象を受けた。 自衛隊がアフガニスタンに医官を派遣するという話があるそうだ。そうだとすれば、アフガニスタンは我が国でも今後一層注目を浴びる地域になるだろう。また、本書を読むと米国、特にオバマ政権の政策決定過程が良く分かる。本書は、アフガニスタンと米国の対外政策を知るために大変有益な書物である。

Woodward's take on how President Obama had to tackle the war in Afghanistan and how to both wind it down while at the same time trying to solve the problem of a complacent Pakistan that was both fighting and abetting al-Qaeda inside their borders. Brings into focus George Bush's administrations lack of having an end game to the war that they started and then had no clue how to end or solve the problems that it created.

This is one of the best non-fiction I have ever read. It's a real page turner, but you don't want to skip even few lines and you might lose a vital piece of information. And even though you read each page, you would still be able to finish the book in couple of days. Gives insight about Obama's first initial years, where he is fighting with Pentagon regarding troops increase in Afghanistan, even though he promised in his presedential campaign that he was against the wall. The politics of war is something that is beyond comprehension of a normal human being.

Wie immer exzellent geschrieben, liest sich auch dieses Bob Woodward's Buch sehr leicht und spannend. Dem Leser wird einen Einblick in der Machtzentrale Obamas gewehrt, man bekommt ein Gefühl wie die Machtausübung funktioniert. Ich fand es erstaunlich wie die hohe Generäle den Oberbefehlshaber, der in ihren Augen ein Neuling ist, zu den von ihnen gewünsten Entscheidungen treiben. Noch mehr hat mich die Standhaftigkeit Obamas nach mehr Optionen zu suchen und seine Entschlossenheit das Angagement in Afghanistan schnellstmöglich zu reduzieren und sogar zu Ende zu bringen. Ganz große Leistung von der nicht alltäglich gesprochen wird. Auch das in der Era Busch nicht mal klar formulierte Zielsetzung für den Afghanistankrieg gab erfuhr ich erst von diesem Buch! Absolute Kaufempfehlung insbesondere als Kindle Version für 8,63 €!

Very good reading. Well narrated.