Enhanced Title: Obama Presidency and the War on Terror

The Wall Street Journal reported that the details of top-level deliberations, known only to the administration's inner circle, have been divulged. When Barack Obama was elected in 2008, he had vowed to close Guantánamo, put an end to coercive interrogation and military tribunals, and restore American principles of justice. However, by the end of his first term, he had backtracked on each of these promises, ramping up the secret war of drone strikes and covert operations.

Behind the scenes, wrenching debates between hawks and doves – those who would kill versus those who would capture – repeatedly tested the very core of the president's identity, leading many to wonder whether he was at heart an idealist or a ruthless pragmatist. Investigative reporter Daniel Klaidman, delving deep into this period of recent history, spoke to dozens of sources to piece together a riveting Washington story packed with revelations.

As the president's inner circle debated secret programs, new legal frontiers, and the disjuncture between principles and down-and-dirty politics, Obama vacillated, sometimes lashed out, and spoke in lofty tones while approving a mounting toll of assassinations and kinetic-war operations. Klaidman's fly-on-the-wall reporting reveals who had his ear, how key national security decisions are really made, and whether or not President Obama lived up to the promise of candidate Obama.

Tina Brown, in her review for NPR, described the book as "Fascinating . . . Lays bare the human dimension of the wrenching national security decisions that have to be made." Steve Coll, in The New Yorker, called it "An important book."

product information: