New book highlights divisions in Obama administration over Afghanistan

Senior Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward has just released a new book exposing the US administration’s deep divisions over the Afghanistan war strategy, sparking a firestorm of controversy.

By Mehdi Chebil (text)

Some 36 years after his exposé of the Watergate scandal brought down the Nixon administration; highly-respected Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward has generated a firestorm with his latest book on the Obama administration’s Afghan strategy review in 2009.

The Washington Post has already published excerpts from the book, while the New York Times managed to get its hands an early copy to offer up a full review of the book. Woodward is a Washington insider known for his ability to obtain cooperation from the US presidents on whom he choses to write - including George W. Bush with "Plan of Attack" (2004) and "State of Denial" (2006), as well as Bill Clinton in "The Agenda" (1994)

As “Obama’s Wars” hit the shelves in the United States, FRANCE 24 takes a look at some of the revelations in this highly-anticipated book, highlighted in a series of photographs.

'Obama's Wars' by Bob Woodward

Washington insider Bob Woodward's latest book deals mostly with the Obama administration's policies in Afghanistan, portraying the US president as increasingly frustrated by military demands for more troops.

'In 2010, we’re not going to be having a conversation about how to change {the mission}... unless we’re talking about how to draw down faster than anticipated in 2011'

Comment by US President Barack Obama. According to Bob Woodward's book, US President Barack Obama has repeatedly called on his military advisers to focus on an Afghan exit plan.

'The most egotistical bastard I’ve ever met'

US vice-president Joe Biden on special AFPAK representative Richard Holbrooke (pictured), in one of the book's passage that deals with intense administration infighting over the Afghan war strategy.

Elite CIA-backed Afghan force going after Pakistani Taliban

One of the book's major revelations is that that CIA has set up an elite paramilitary unit numbering 3,000 troops to conduct sensitive covert operations in Pakistan.

'He’s on his meds, he’s off his meds'

US ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry, referring to Hamid Karzai’s alleged mental health issues.

'We can absorb a terrorist attack. We’ll do everything we can to prevent it, but even a 9/11, even the biggest attack ever... we absorbed it and we are stronger'

US President Barack Obama quoted by Bob Woodward.

'They talk, we listen. They move, we observe. Given the opportunity, we react operationally'

Former Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell to US President Barack Obama two days after he was elected. (Pictured here is McConnell's successor, James Clapper)

Photo credits: "Obama's Wars" cover by publishers Simon & Schuster, all other pictures copyright AFP.