In Obama's Wars, Bob Woodward provides the most intimate and sweeping portrait yet of the young
president as commander in chief. Drawing on internal memos, classified documents, meeting notes
and hundreds of hours of interviews with most of the key players, including the president,
Woodward tells the inside story of Obama making the critical decisions on the Afghanistan War,
the secret campaign in Pakistan and the worldwide fight against terrorism.
At the core of Obama's Wars is the unsettled division between the civilian leadership in the
White House and the United States military as the president is thwarted in his efforts to craft
an exit plan for the Afghanistan War.
"So what's my option?" the president asked his war cabinet, seeking alternatives to the
Afghanistan commander's request for 40,000 more troops in late 2009. "You have essentially given
me one option.... It's unacceptable."
"Well," Secretary of Defense Robert Gates finally said, "Mr. President, I think we owe you that
option."
It never came. An untamed Vice President Joe Biden pushes relentlessly to limit the military
mission and avoid another Vietnam. The vice president frantically sent half a dozen handwritten
memos by secure fax to Obama on the eve of the final troop decision.
President Obama's ordering a surge of 30,000 troops and pledging to start withdrawing U.S. forces
by July 2011 did not end the skirmishing.
General David Petraeus, the new Afghanistan commander, thinks time can be added to the clock if
he shows progress. "I don't think you win this war," Petraeus said privately. "This is the kind
of fight we're in for the rest of our lives and probably our kids' lives."
Hovering over this debate is the possibility of another terrorist attack in the United States.
The White House led a secret exercise showing how unprepared the government is if terrorists set
off a nuclear bomb in an American city--which Obama told Woodward is at the top of the list of
what he worries about all the time.
Verbatim quotes from secret debates and White House strategy sessions--and firsthand accounts of
the thoughts and concerns of the president, his war council and his generals--reveal a government
in conflict, often consumed with nasty infighting and fundamental disputes.
Woodward has discovered how the Obama White House really works, showing that even more tough
decisions lie ahead for the cerebral and engaged president.
Obama's Wars offers the reader a stunning, you-are-there account of the president, his White House
aides, military leaders, diplomats and intelligence chiefs in this time of turmoil and danger.

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