Best Defense

Thomas E. Ricks' daily take on national security.

Woodward book rollout begins

The Washington Post has a good summary of the revelations in Bob Woodward’s new book, Obama’s Wars, as does FP‘s own Blake Hounshell. Most interesting to readers of this blog are those about Afghanistan (CIA runs a 3,000-man Afghan paramilitary organization that operates both in Afghanistan and Pakistan) and friction between the military and the ...

The Washington Post has a good summary of the revelations in Bob Woodward's new book, Obama's Wars, as does FP's own Blake Hounshell. Most interesting to readers of this blog are those about Afghanistan (CIA runs a 3,000-man Afghan paramilitary organization that operates both in Afghanistan and Pakistan) and friction between the military and the White House (Petraeus telling aides that the administration is "fucking with the wrong guy"; Gates getting upset over a White House aide dissing a general; JCS chairman Mullen at odds with his vice chairman, Cartwright). 

The Washington Post has a good summary of the revelations in Bob Woodward’s new book, Obama’s Wars, as does FP‘s own Blake Hounshell. Most interesting to readers of this blog are those about Afghanistan (CIA runs a 3,000-man Afghan paramilitary organization that operates both in Afghanistan and Pakistan) and friction between the military and the White House (Petraeus telling aides that the administration is “fucking with the wrong guy”; Gates getting upset over a White House aide dissing a general; JCS chairman Mullen at odds with his vice chairman, Cartwright). 

Thomas E. Ricks covered the U.S. military from 1991 to 2008 for the Wall Street Journal and then the Washington Post. He can be reached at ricksblogcomment@gmail.com. Twitter: @tomricks1

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