Elusive Victories_ The American Presidency at War-Oxford University Press (2012)

312 e lusive v ictories campaign’s successful legal challenge to the 2000 Florida recount process, to co-chair the commission wi ...

t he p erils of o ptimism 313 In the face of the epic tide of violence in Iraq, unease spread among senior Bush administration o ...

314 e lusive v ictories hearts and minds.”  It was a mode of warfare that looked nothing like the high-tech military transfor ...

t he p erils of o ptimism 315 coupled with an effort to prepare the Iraqi military to take over— essentially a continuation of t ...

316 e lusive v ictories chorus of critics who wanted the United States to cut its losses and seek an exit strategy. For a presid ...

t he p erils of o ptimism 317 additional forces would create only a brief window in which to reverse the trends in Iraq, while C ...

318 e lusive v ictories his rise to the top level of command. Roosevelt also left most opera- tional decisions to his military c ...

t he p erils of o ptimism 319 Nevertheless, some developments held promise, and Petraeus moved quickly to capitalize on these. A ...

320 e lusive v ictories political reconciliation occurred at the top of the Iraqi political system. Neither Shia nor Kurds nor S ...

t he p erils of o ptimism 321 impose a deadline for withdrawing American troops from Iraq. Despite their majority status in both ...

322 e lusive v ictories Nothing Bush said about Iraq by this point registered with the American people. Throughout his last two ...

t he p erils of o ptimism 323 Th e outcome in Iraq exemplifi es the consequences of misguided wartime leadership. Bush mishandle ...

324 e lusive v ictories the table, the president’s record suggests he would have simply stayed the course through the end of his ...

t he p erils of o ptimism 325 absent the willingness of Sunni tribal leaders to shift roles from insurgents to partners with the ...

326  presidents often have a keen sense of history. In wartime, they are attuned to the real or perceived mistakes of their pre ...

i nheriting a b ad h and 327 American combat role in Iraq was clearly winding down. Afghanistan claimed most of his attention. T ...

328 e lusive v ictories action where prior choices, whether made by him or by others, have circumscribed his agency.  Th e Pric ...

i nheriting a b ad h and 329 course (leaving open whether to alter the military approach within the existing force commitment), ...

330 e lusive v ictories Th e Price of Buying Time Obama moved quickly to establish firm White House control over Afghanistan pol ...

i nheriting a b ad h and 331 been a forceful advocate for the Iraq surge and strongly urged that the counterinsurgency methods i ...