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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsBiden, in leaked memo, told Obama war plan flawed
June 25, 2012
By Anne Gearan
AP National Security Writer
WASHINGTONAs President Barack Obama considered adding as many as 40,000 U.S. forces to a backsliding war in Afghanistan in 2009, Vice President Joe Biden warned him that the military rationale for doing so was flawed, a new book about Obama's expansion of the conflict says.
The book, "Little America: The War Within the War for Afghanistan," also says that in planning the drawdown of troops two years later, the White House intentionally sidelined the CIA. Obama purposely did not read a grim CIA assessment of Afghanistan that found little measurable benefit from the 30,000 "surge" forces Obama eventually approved, the book quotes a U.S. official as saying.
A copy of the book by Washington Post correspondent Rajiv Chandrasekaran was obtained by The Associated Press. It will be released Tuesday.
A previously undisclosed Biden memo to Obama in November 2009 reflects his view that military commanders were asking Obama to take a leap by adding tens of thousands of forces whose role was poorly defined.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2012/06/25/biden_in_leaked_memo_told_obama_war_plan_flawed/
Skittles
(153,321 posts)we are still spending billions on Afghanistan and getting NOTHING for it
chollybocker
(3,687 posts)someone wrote and got published.
BlueIris
(29,135 posts)I always blamed "the surge" on the C.I.A. It's curious to think it might not have supported continuing the War on Terror, either.
Mass
(27,315 posts)Hard to say from the sentence in excerpt.
scheming daemons
(25,487 posts)Joe gives advice to the president. His advice isn't always correct.
rug
(82,333 posts)Mass
(27,315 posts)May be we had not read the actual memo, but it was clear from a very long time ago that Biden disagreed with the plan.