Kill or Capture
eBook - ePub

Kill or Capture

The War on Terror and the Soul of the Obama Presidency

  1. 304 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

Kill or Capture

The War on Terror and the Soul of the Obama Presidency

About this book

"Divulge[s] the details of top-level deliberations—details that were almost certainly known only to the administration's inner circle" ( The Wall Street Journal ). When he was elected in 2008, Barack Obama had vowed to close Guantánamo, put an end to coercive interrogation and military tribunals, and restore American principles of justice. Yet 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. Digging deep into this period of recent history, investigative reporter Daniel Klaidman 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. "Fascinating... Lays bare the human dimension of the wrenching national security decisions that have to be made." —Tina Brown, NPR "An important book." —Steve Coll, The New Yorker

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Yes, you can access Kill or Capture by Daniel Klaidman in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Politics & International Relations & American Government. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Title Page
  2. Table of Contents
  3. Copyright
  4. Dedication
  5. Cast of Characters
  6. A Note on Sources
  7. Prologue
  8. 1. The Promise
  9. 2. Where the Fuck is bin Laden?
  10. 3. Torture Debates and Murder Boards
  11. 4. Escape From Gitmo
  12. 5. Kill or Capture
  13. 6. How Not to Try a Terrorist
  14. 7. The Christmas Gift
  15. 8. From Warfare to Lawfare
  16. 9. “The President is Anguished”
  17. 10. Textbook
  18. Epilogue
  19. Postscript
  20. Acknowledgments
  21. Index
  22. About the Author