Killing Machine (40 page)

43
.
  
Peter Baker, “How Obama Came to Plan for ‘Surge’ in Afghanistan,”
New York Times
, December 6, 2009.

44
.
  
Jonathan Alter,
The Promise: President Obama, Year One
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010), 383–85.

45
.
  
Ibid., 374ff.

46
.
  
Walter Alarkon, “Petraeus Says Obama Told Him Iraq Surge Was a Success,”
The Hill
, December 6, 2009,
thehill.com/homenews/administration/70787-petraeus-says-obama-told-him-iraq-surge-was-a-success
; Dana Milbank, “Obama’s Afghan Deadline All But Missed,”
Washington Post
, December 3, 2009.

47
.
  
Rajiv Chandrasekaran and Greg Jaffe, “McChrystal’s Afghanistan Plan Stays Mainly Intact,”
Washington Post
, December 7, 2009.

48
.
  
Kilcullen quoted in Trudy Rubin, “Worldview: Obama’s Detrimental Deadline,”
Philly.com
, July 25, 2010,
articles.philly.com/2010-07-25/news/24969811_l_afghan-government-taliban-factions-afghan-people
.

49
.
  
Mark Landler and Jeff Zeleny, “Among Obama Aides, Debate Intensifies on Troop Levels,”
New York Times
, November 12, 2009.

3. A Tale of Two Speeches

1
.
  
“Remarks of President Barack Obama—As Prepared for Delivery: Responsibly Ending the War in Iraq,” speech at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, February 27, 2009,
www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-of-President-Barack-Obama-Responsibly-Ending-the-War-in-Iraq
.

2
.
  
Anders Fogh Rasmussen, “A New Momentum for Afghanistan from NATO; a Transition but Not an Exit Strategy,”
Washington Post
, December 4, 2009.

3
.
  
Quoted in Oliver Stone and Peter Kuznick,
The Untold History of the United States
(New York: Gallery Books, 2012), 592.

4
.
  
Quoted in Arianna Huffington, “Sartre Meets Afghanistan: Obama’s ‘No Exit’ Strategy,”
Huffington Post
, December 7, 2009,
www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/sartre-meets-afghanistan_b_383529.html
(emphasisa dded).

5
.
  
Eric Schmitt, “Obama Issues Order for More Troops in Afghanistan,”
New York Times
, December 1, 2009.

6
.
  
Ibid.

7
.
  
George Will, “This Will Not End Well,”
Washington Post
, December 3, 2009.

8
.
  
George McGovern, “A Sharp Turn Toward Another Vietnam,”
Washington Post
, December 13, 2009.

9
.
  
Eliot Cohen, “Obama’s COIN Toss,”
Washington Post
, December 6, 2009.

10
.
  
Niall Ferguson, “An Empire at Risk,”
Newsweek
, November 28, 2009.

11
.
  
David E. Sanger,
Confront and Conceal: Obama’s Secret Wars and Surprising Use of American Power
(New York: Crown, 2012), 63–64.

12
.
  
Scott Wilson and Jon Cohen, “Poll Finds Broad Support for Obama’s Counter-Terrorism Policies,”
Washington Post
, February 8, 2012.

13
.
  
Eric Schmitt, “Two Top Aides Show Unity on Afghan Strategy,”
New York Times
, December 9, 2009.

14
.
  
Associated Press, “Petraeus Warns New Surge Progress Will Be Slow,” NBC News, December 9, 2009,
www.nbcnews.com/id/34345847/
.

15
.
  
Scott Shane, “The War in Pashtunistan,”
New York Times
, December 5, 2009.

16
.
  
Ibid.

17
.
  
Associated Press, “Petraeus Warns New Surge Progress Will Be Slow.”

18
.
  
Mark Landler, “Petraeus Warns of a Long and Expensive Mission in Afghanistan,”
New York Times
, December 10, 2009.

19
.
  
Maureen Dowd, “A Game That’s Not So Great,”
New York Times
, December 13, 2009.

20
.
  
Ibid.

21
.
  
Peter Walker and Elana Schor, “Crowds Gather in Berlin to Hear Obama’s Foreign Policy Speech,”
The Guardian
, July 24, 2008.

22
.
  
“Full Script of Obama’s Speech,” July 24, 2008, CNN Politics,
edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/07/24/obama.words/
.

23
.
  
“Brooks, Marcus Discuss Potential Peace Prize Backfire, Rangel Controversy,” PBS
NewsHour
, October 9, 2009,
www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics/july-dec09/brooksmarcus_10-09.html
.

24
.
  
Thorbjørn Jagland, quoted in James Fallows, “Obama’s Nobel Speech,”
The Atlantic
,
www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2009/12/obamas-nobel-speech/31598/
.”

25
.
  
James Mann,
The Obamians: The Struggle Inside the White House to Redefine American Power
(New York: Viking Press, 2012), 89. Many of the details of the Power-Obama relationship are from this source.

26
.
  
Ibid., 152–53.

27
.
  
Samantha Power, “Our War on Terror,”
New York Times Book Review
, July 27, 2007. All quotes in this section are taken from this source.

28
.
  
Stanley Kurtz, “Samantha Power’s Power: On the Ideology of an Obama Adviser,”
National Review
, April 5, 2011.

29
.
  
David Brooks, “Obama’s Christian Realism,”
New York Times
, December 15, 2009.

30
.
  
Ted Widmer, “Obama’s Nobel Speech: Sophisticated and Brave,”
New York Times
, December 12, 2009.

31
.
  
Ibid.

32
.
  
Martin Luther King Jr., “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence,” speech at Riverside Church, New York, April 4, 1967,
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article2564.html
.

33
.
  
“Toast Remarks by the President at the 2009 Nobel Banquet,” December 10, 2009,
www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-offlce/toast-remarks-president-2009-nobel-banquet
.

34
.
  
Mann,
Obamians
, 334; Sanger,
Confront and Conceal
, x ix–xx.

35
.
  
Jo Becker and Scott Shane, “Secret ‘Kill List’ Proves a Test of Obama’s Principles and Will,”
New York Times
, May 29, 2012.

36
.
  
Ibid.

37
.
  
Kristina Wong, “President Obama’s Joke About Predator Drones Draws Fire,”
Political Punch
blog, ABC News, May 3, 2010,
abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2010/05/president-obamas-joke-about-predator-drones-draws-flre/
.

4. On to Marja!

1
.
  
“Afghan President’s Brother, Ahmad Wali Karzai, Killed,” BBC News, South Asia, July 12, 2011; Karen DeYoung and Craig Whitlock, “U.S. Forces Set Sights on Taliban Bastion of Kandahar,”
Washington Post
, March 31, 2010.

2
.
  
Mark Mazzetti,
The Way of the Knife: The CIA, a Secret Army, and a War at the Ends of the Earth
(New York: Penguin, 2013), 205–6.

3
.
  
Jane Perlez, “Rebuffing U.S., Pakistan Balks at Crackdown,”
New York Times
, December 14, 2009.

4
.
  
Quoted in Jonathan Steele,
Ghosts of Afghanistan: Hard Truths and Foreign Myths
(Berkeley, CA: Counterpoint Press, 2011), 361.

5
.
  
Ibid., 334.

6
.
  
Julian Borger and Simon Tisdall, “Talk to Taliban for Peace, Says Afghan Envoy,”
The Guardian
, January 2, 2010; Mark Landler and Helene Cooper, “U.S. Wrestling with Olive Branch for Taliban,”
New York Times
, January 27, 2010.

7
.
  
Dexter Filkins and Mark Landler, “Afghan Leader Is Seen to Flout Influence of U.S.,”
New York Times
, March 30, 2010.

8
.
  
The most recent confirmation of this important aspect of the reasons for the coup against Diem comes from Lien-Hang T. Nguyen’s
Hanoi’s War: An International History of the War for Peace in Vietnam
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2012), 62: “When the Ngo brothers, particularly Diem’s brother Nhu, expressed interest in this scheme [French president Charles de Gaulle’s proposal for neutralizing Vietnam] and initiated talks with the NLF as a means to corner the Americans, who had grown more critical of their administration, they not only signed their own death warrants, but they may have increased” anxiety among North Vietnamese warhawks like Le Duan, who were anxious to settle affairs quickly and reunite Vietnam under their leadership.

9
.
  
Mark Thompson, “U.S. Troops Prepare to Test Obama’s Afghan War Plan,”
Time
, February 9, 2010.

10
.
  
Greg Jaffe and Craig Whitlock, “Battle for Marja Not Only Militarily Significant,”
Washington Post
, February 22, 2010.

11
.
  
Michael Hastings,
The Operators: The Wild and Terrifying Inside Story of America’s War in Afghanistan
(New York: Blue Rider Press, 2012), 226–31.

12
.
  
Rajiv Chandrasekaran,
Little America: The War Within the War for Afghanistan
(New York: Knopf, 2012), 140.

13
.
  
“Army Sees Marjah Offensive as a Model for Afghan Military Strategy,”
PBS NewsHour
, February 26, 2010,
www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/military/jan-june10/afghanistan2_02-26.html
; Thompson, “U.S. Troops Prepare to Test Obama’s Afghan War Plan.”

14
.
  
Thompson, “U.S. Troops Prepare to Test Obama’s Afghan War Plan.”

15
.
  
John Kruzel, “Mullen Discusses Marja, Personnel Policy Issues,”
Defense Video and Imagery Distribution System
, February 26, 2010,
www.dvidshub.net/news/printable/45904
.

16
.
  
John J. Kruzel, “After Marja, ‘Kandahar Will Be Next,’ Mullen Says,” Armed Forces Press Service, March 4, 2010,
www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=58187
.

17
.
  
Ibid.

18
.
  
C.J. Chivers, “Afghans Voice Their Fears Amid Marja Campaign,”
New York Times
, February 22, 2010.

19
.
  
C.J. Chivers and Rod Nordland, “Marines in Afghan Assault Grapple with Civilian Deaths,”
New York Times
, February 17, 2010.

20
.
  
“Army Sees Marjah Offensive as a Model.”

21
.
  
Chandrasekaran,
Little America
, 143–44.

22
.
  
Sangar Rahimi and Richard A. Oppel Jr., “Afghanistan’s President Receives a Mixed Reception in a Visit to Newly Won Marja,”
New York Times
, March 8, 2010.

23
.
  
Richard A. Oppel Jr., “Tighter Rules Fail to Stem Deaths of Innocent Afghans at Checkpoints,”
New York Times
, March 26, 2010.

24
.
  
Joshua Partlow and Scott Wilson, “Obama Presses Karzai for Cooperation,”
Washington Post
, March 29, 2010.

25
.
  
Ibid.; Jennifer Lowen, “Obama to Karzai: Progress Needed in Afghanistan,”
Army Times
, March 29, 2010.

26
.
  
Matthew Rosenberg, “Karzai Says He Was Assured CIA Would Continue Delivering Bags of Cash,”
New York Times
, May 4, 2013.

27
.
  
Joshua Partlow and Scott Wilson, “Karzai Rails Against Foreign Presence, Accuses West of Engineering Voter Fraud,”
Washington Post
, April 2, 2010.

28
.
  
BobWoodward,
Obama’s Wars
(New York: Simon & Schuster: 2010), 348–49.

29
.
  
Julian E. Barnes, “Afghan Taliban Getting Stronger, Pentagon Says,”
Los Angeles Times
, April 29, 2010.

30
.
  
“Remarks by President Obama and President Karzai of Afghanistan in Joint Press Availability,” May 12, 2010,
www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-obama-and-president-karzai-afghanistan-joint-press-availability
.