Alex Spillius: What happened to the Obama dream?
[Alex Spillius is The Daily Telegraph's Washington Correspondent.]
When Barack Obama took office 20 months ago – and what a long 20 months it seems – there was a lot of talk about the great "Team of Rivals" he was appointing around him. Parallels were drawn with the cabinet of substantial talents and big personalities assembled by Abraham Lincoln to rebuild the nation after the civil war.
Now, in a new book, Obama's Wars, the veteran reporter Bob Woodward has confirmed in intricate detail what has been known in Washington for some time: that some of the team could barely stomach working with each other. General David Petraeus, then the military overseer of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, avoided contact with David Axelrod, the President's chief strategist, whom he regarded as a "complete spin doctor". No one had a good word for General James Jones, the national security adviser and former Nato commander, while his number two, Thomas Donilon, was regarded as a "disaster" by the Defence Secretary, Robert Gates.
Most withering of all was Vice President Joe Biden's description of Richard Holbrooke, the special envoy to Afghanistan, as "the most egotistical bastard I've ever met". Biden has nearly 40 years' experience in Washington, so that is saying something.
Much of this would be unimportant if there weren't a war involved – no one expects to be given a smooth ride in the White House and some of what Woodward describes could even be called healthy debate – but the aura of dysfunction portrayed by Woodward as Obama and his "team" debated strategy in Afghanistan is truly alarming.
Frustrated by the military's inability to offer an endgame after nearly 10 years of combat, the President came up with his own. Largely to placate the base of the Democratic Party, he arrived at the muddling compromise of sending in another 30,000 troops while promising to start bringing forces home just 18 months later, in July 2011.
Woodward's painstaking account confirms the suspicion on the part of Obama's critics that he is fighting a war he doesn't believe in – a feeling shared by others in his team. Woodward reveals that Holbrooke was among several who said the plan "can't work"...
Read entire article at Telegraph (UK)
When Barack Obama took office 20 months ago – and what a long 20 months it seems – there was a lot of talk about the great "Team of Rivals" he was appointing around him. Parallels were drawn with the cabinet of substantial talents and big personalities assembled by Abraham Lincoln to rebuild the nation after the civil war.
Now, in a new book, Obama's Wars, the veteran reporter Bob Woodward has confirmed in intricate detail what has been known in Washington for some time: that some of the team could barely stomach working with each other. General David Petraeus, then the military overseer of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, avoided contact with David Axelrod, the President's chief strategist, whom he regarded as a "complete spin doctor". No one had a good word for General James Jones, the national security adviser and former Nato commander, while his number two, Thomas Donilon, was regarded as a "disaster" by the Defence Secretary, Robert Gates.
Most withering of all was Vice President Joe Biden's description of Richard Holbrooke, the special envoy to Afghanistan, as "the most egotistical bastard I've ever met". Biden has nearly 40 years' experience in Washington, so that is saying something.
Much of this would be unimportant if there weren't a war involved – no one expects to be given a smooth ride in the White House and some of what Woodward describes could even be called healthy debate – but the aura of dysfunction portrayed by Woodward as Obama and his "team" debated strategy in Afghanistan is truly alarming.
Frustrated by the military's inability to offer an endgame after nearly 10 years of combat, the President came up with his own. Largely to placate the base of the Democratic Party, he arrived at the muddling compromise of sending in another 30,000 troops while promising to start bringing forces home just 18 months later, in July 2011.
Woodward's painstaking account confirms the suspicion on the part of Obama's critics that he is fighting a war he doesn't believe in – a feeling shared by others in his team. Woodward reveals that Holbrooke was among several who said the plan "can't work"...