Bob Woodward, Obama's Wars, 2010

This is the story of the Obama Administration's decision-making on Afghanistan in the autumn of 2009.
Afghanistan had been closely linked to Pakistan in the mind of the people so that the two were together called 'AfPak'. But Pakistan has been given a negative assessment in connection with the US operations in Afghanistan. Some called it 'a dishonest partner of the U.S. in the Afghanistan War'. She is 'the patron and the victim and the safe haven (of the terrorists) all at the same time'. Her peculiar relationship with India was also recognized. People said that 'Pakistan worried more about being encircled by India than being underminded by extremists inside its borders', that 'What Pakistan doesn't want, as a matter of faith, is a unified Afghan government that is led by a Pashtun sympathetic to India' like President Karzai. But at the same time the US did not hesitate to give 'weapons, trade deals and money' to President Zardari of that country.
Mr.Obama, the newly elected President, has 'campaigned on providing Afghanistan with more troops', although he was against the case for Iraq. But, surprisingly, there was no coherent strategy for Afghanistan. There was only a demand by the US commander there for 40,000 more troops. Therefore Obama called the full meeting of the NSC, the 'war cabinet', 9 times in all from September to November, 2009, to work out a strategy.
The uniformed people headed by the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, backed the demand, and they were joined by both the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of State. The Vice-President and other, mostly civilian, advisers were against it. No viable options were in sight even at the 8th meeting, which led one participant to think 'that Obama had perhaps underestimated the extent to which he had inherited George W.Bush's presidency-the apparatus, personnel and mind-set of war making'. One more meeting, and finally Obama decided on sending 30,000, and to start withdrawing from Afghanistan in July 2011. The cost of this would be $30 billion.
Obama's leadership was apparent throughout those meetings. It was he who asked at the very first meeting 'did we really have to win a civil war in Afghanistan?', since the core goal for the US is 'defeating al Qaeda in order to protect the homeland'. 'I want an exit strategy' was what he said at the 6th. At the 8th he stated 'Our goal...is to deny the Taliban the ability to threaten to overthrow the Afghan state and provide safe haven to Al Qaeda'. Those words became the most important part of the final decision dated 29 November. On the same occasion he complained that the military plan for sending 40,000 'compromises our ability to do anything else'.
While talking of the safe haven in Pakistan, most members had FATA(Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas) like Waziristan in mind. In reality the action against the Al Qaeda leader took place at a different place in Pakistan. But the core goal was achieved. It is time the US started thinking of withdrawing, all the more so as the time indicated by Obama, July 2011, is just round the corner.