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Vice President Biden Warned Obama Against Surge in Afghanistan

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A new book by Washington Post correspondent Rajiv Chandrasekaran credits Vice President Joe Biden with raising early alarms to President Obama about the viability of employing a massive “surge” of troops in Afghanistan the way the U.S. did in Iraq.

The book, Little America: The War Within the War for Afghanistan, says Biden first expressed his opinion about the uselessness of an Afghanistan surge in November 2009. Biden was pushing the idea to the president that he should be skeptical of the view of generals who were calling for the surge. While Obama eventually approved a surge of 30,000 troops—10,000 less than the generals were seeking—the president also stated that the surge was just a first step in an eventual drawdown of troops.

“I do not see how anyone who took part in our discussions could emerge without profound questions about the viability of counterinsurgency,” Biden wrote to Obama.

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