what you see in the book is that he felt trapped by being in afghanistan. he had campaigned against the war in iraq. afghanistan and the commitment there was really the exit strategy from iraq. it was clear to the military you couldn t do both. afghanistan is where they felt, because of the importance of pakistan, as chuck correctly points out, and india as well, the whole region, the war on terror, it made sense but strategically, it made sense, but still is not an easy thing to do militarily and it is very clear at he is aware going in that it is not something you can be do in a year or two. and so one would ask, if you have loved ones there, you know, why are we going to be any better off a year or two years or three years from now than we are right now? and there is no good answer to that. well, the preside told the chairman of the joint chiefs, mike mullin, and general petraeus and secretary gates, in 2010, we will not be having a conversation about how to do more. i will not w
from this book the president s instinct is that that july 2011 thing is a lot more real than maybe was hinted at when they first rolled it out. but then again joe biden. i want to get to a couple of points, sorry, andrea. joe biden made a point this deadline is real a quote from joe biden in the book. a quote in joe biden s box. everybody talks out of school, i work here. there is a lot of kibbitzing any place you work, don t want to be held to it. bob woodward around, somebody will quote you and you are nailed for life, because as long as that other person lives, that book is on their shelf with your quote in it. here is joe biden talking about richard holbrooke the special afpak envoy. he s the most egotistical bastard i ve ever met. these kind of quotes. petraeus referring to david axelrod, the president s spin doctor. he called him a complete spin doctor. i guess that is what you are supposed to call a spin doctor. but a lot of these quotes are they going to cause trouble p
no relationship with the military. and what does come through loud and clear in this book is the distrust and the long knifes that were out, the infighting between the civilian side, the white house aides, the political former campaign aides and the military brass. well, here s another quote. when senator lindsey graham asked the president if the july, 2011 withdraw was firm, the president said i have to say that i can t let this be a war out end and i can t lose the whole democratic party. again, the president admitting he had an outside window he couldn t continue through. let me go back to chuck todd at the white house. chuck, i was talking to andrea the fact that the quotes and the book by bob woodward admitting basically, he had political concerns. that we couldn t stay in the war more than two years, or his democratic base, which is basically dovish would abandon him. fair enough? andrea points out that is fair enough. here is the other question, was he staying there at least
you know, the one that really surprised me, frankly, all the jim jones stuff, you have been hearing chatter about that for a long time. the most surprising thing was the apparent distrust between the secretary of defense gates i and jim jones deputy, tom donelan, the fact that there is not a lot of trust there, because tom donelan is seen as somebody very trusted by the president, could be a replacement that one surprised me, tom donelan a great guy. you know, very quickly, chris, i do think that this book, you see the steve ratner book, people leaving the administration, boy, i think you are going to start seeing the next six months, you are going to hear a lot of anonymous quote, a lot more reporting about happened wringing inside the west wing because the distrust between staffers now. they see what somebody else said to woodward and they are going to feel like, you know what i will talk to reporters now. god, this is like the cherokee strip, isn t it? racing to get the fir
that this is someone trying to figure out what is tolerable by the american people. i think they can explain this and say this is exactly what he is doing. well, he s saying how much he can get away with in terms of keeping his troops there, because his base will depart from him otherwise. let ask you about the positive question. are we in there for two years because he believes in what we can do for two years or believe that is what he has to do to keep the right from attacking him, because throughout this these quotes we are getting from this book today, we are getting the sense that he really wants to get out. he wants an exit strategy from afghanistan. my question is why are we even there two years if he wants to get out now? i think they felt trapped. from reading this book, they felt trapped with the war in afghanistan that they had no option and you are right, he felt that he had to keep the lindsey grahams, the republican critics on his side and the military. this is a ne