Summary

Chapter Twelve: Doubling Down concerns the transition between George W. Bush’s presidency and that of Barack Obama’s. Obama retained Robert Gates as Secretary of Defense, marking a continuity in war planning. Early in the Obama presidency, however, Gates dismissed General McKiernan as commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan. This occurred amidst plans to ramp up the occupation forces in the country by an additional 21,000 troops. Whitlock describes the dismissal of McKiernan as a dramatic event, unprecedented in US wartime history. He accounts for it by suggesting that McKiernan’s sober assessment of the US military situation in the country was bad for his career.

Chapter Thirteen: “A Dark Pit of Endless Money” begins by setting the scene of President Obama’s December 1st, 2009, speech on Afghanistan, given at the military academy at West Point. He noted that...