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What's in Bob Woodward's "Obama?s Wars"?

The NYT reports in advance of the publication date:

The president concluded from the start that ?I have two years with the public on [Afghanistan]? and pressed advisers for ways to avoid a big escalation, the book says. ?I want an exit strategy,? he implored at one meeting. Privately, he told Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. to push his alternative strategy opposing a big troop buildup in meetings, and while Mr. Obama ultimately rejected it, he set a withdrawal timetable because, ?I can?t lose the whole Democratic Party.?...

[T]he book describes a professorial president who assigned ?homework? to advisers but bristled at what he saw as military commanders? attempts to force him into a decision. Even after he agreed to send another 30,000 troops last winter, the Pentagon asked for another 4,500 ?enablers? to support them.

The president lost his poise... ?I?m done doing this!? he erupted....

And President Hamid Karzai suffers from manic depression.

Full post as published by Althouse on September 21, 2010 (boomark / email).