Behind the Afghanistan Surge

Worth Clicking: Blasts from the past wound Romney

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December 06, 2009

Behind the Afghanistan Surge

Two must-read stories attempt to show how President Obama came to his decision on a surge of new troops in Afghanistan.

Here are some interesting excerpts:

Washington Post: "'What was interesting was the metamorphosis,' said national security adviser James L. Jones, the only senior official who agreed to discuss the deliberations on the record. 'I dare say that none of us ended up where we started.'"

New York Times: Vice President Joe Biden "quickly became the most outspoken critic of the expected McChrystal troop request, arguing that Pakistan was the bigger priority, since that is where Al Qaeda is mainly based. 'He was the bull in the china shop,' said one admiring administration official. But others were nodding their heads at some of what he was saying, too, including General Jones and Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff."

After reading the stories, Playbook concludes the "implicit message of the material fed" to the newspapers was that this "was not just a Potemkin debate over a foregone conclusion. Unlike President George W. Bush, we took a long, hard look at the options and alternatives. And unlike the armchair warriors in the Bush administration, we didn't let ideology drive strategy. This president knows the cost of war, and wasn't taking the troop commitment lightly."

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Taegan D. Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country, including the Washington Post, USA Today, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer and Christian Science Monitor.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

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December 06, 2009