Exceptional (37 page)

his Miranda rights:
Transcript, Robert Gibbs interview,
Fox News Sunday,
January 24, 2010,
http://www.foxnews.com/story/2010/01/24/transcript-robert-gibbs-on-fns.html
.

“at a higher level”:
Stephen F. Hayes, “System Failure: The Christmas Day Bomber Was Never Asked Specific Questions Based on the Intelligence the U.S. Government Had Already Collected on Him,”
Weekly Standard,
January 21, 2010,
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/title-goes-here
.

“fully operational”:
Ibid.

“foment the attack”:
Briefing by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Assistant to the President for Counterterrorism and Homeland Security John Brennan, and Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, January 7, 2010,
https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/briefing-homeland-security-secretary-napolitano-assistant-president-counterterroris
.

“overseas contingency operations”:
Scott Wilson and Al Kamen, “Global War on Terror Is Given New Name,” March 25, 2009,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/24/AR2009032402818.html
.

“man-caused disasters”:
Tim Graham, “Obamaspeak: Homeland Security Secretary Replaces ‘Terrorism' with the Term ‘Man-Caused Disaster,' ”
Newsbusters
, March 29, 2009,
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/tim-graham/2009/03/19/obama-speak-homeland-security-secretary-replaces-terrorism-term-man-caus
.

“isolated extremists”:
Stephen F. Hayes, “An ‘Isolated Extremist'? Obama Gets It Dead Wrong,“
Weekly Standard,
January 18, 2010,
http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/%25E2%2580%2598isolated-extremist%25E2%2580%2599
.

“workplace violence”:
Michael Daly, “Nidal Hasan's Murders Termed ‘Workplace Violence' by U.S.,”
Daily Beast,
August 6, 2013,
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/08/06/nidal-hasan-s-murders-termed-workplace-violence-by-u-s.html
.

“deliberately, but decisively”:
Peter Baker and Thom Shanker, “Obama Meets with Officials on Iraq, Signaling His Commitment to Ending War,”
New York Times,
January 21, 2009,
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/22/us/politics/22prexy.html
.

on which he had campaigned:
Gates,
Duty,
p. 324.

“chilling effect on Iraqis”:
“U.S. Envoy Warns Against ‘Precipitous' Withdrawal from Iraq,” CNN, January 22, 2009,
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/01/22/iraq.withdrawal/
.

“devastating attacks”:
Ibid.

“take in Iraq”:
Elisabeth Bumiller, “Military Planners, in Nod to Obama, Are Preparing for a Faster Iraq Withdrawal,”
New York Times,
January 14, 2009,
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/15/us/politics/15policy.html
.

America's combat operations:
Michael R. Gordon and Bernard E. Trainor,
The Endgame: The Inside Story of the Struggle for Iraq, from George W. Bush to Barack Obama
(New York: Pantheon Books, 2012), p. 565.

“window of greatest risk”:
Ibid., loc. 11085.

“organizational capacities”:
Ibid., 566.

suggested by Secretary Gates:
Gates,
Duty,
pp. 324–25.

50,000–55,000 troops:
Gordon and Trainor,
The Endgame,
p. 567.

point at all:
Ibid.

“dealt a serious blow”:
President Barack Obama, “Responsibly Ending the War in Iraq,” Remarks at Camp Lejeune, February 27, 2009,
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/27/us/politics/27obama-text.html?pagewanted=all
.

shape its future:
General Jack Keane, interview, “Leaving Iraq was an absolute strategic failure,” PBS
Frontline,
July 29, 2014,
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/iraq-war-on-terror/losing-iraq/jack-keane-leaving-iraq-was-an-absolute-strategic-failure/
.

with Iraqis himself:
Gordon and Trainor,
The Endgame,
p. 626, and Emma Sky,
The Unraveling: High Hopes and Missed Opportunities in Iraq
(New York: Public Affairs, 2015), p. 312.

“or Iraq”:
Anthony Shadid, “Ambassador Leaves Iraq with Much Still Unsettled,”
New York Times,
August 12, 2010,
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/13/world/middleeast/13iraq.html
.

“play lacrosse”:
Sky,
The Unraveling,
p. 313.

“pervasive Iranian influence”:
Embassy Baghdad cable, “U/S Burns's and U/S Flournoy's meeting VP Hashemi and the IIP,” May 20, 2009; quoted in Gordon and Trainor,
The Endgame,
p. 587.

“growing interest in Iran”:
Ibid.

“for the short term”
: Ibid.

“discussions with Iran”:
Ibid.

until 2020:
Tim Pearce, “Iraqi General Says Iraq Not Ready for US Pullout,” Reuters, August 12, 2010,
http://abcnews.go.com/International/lt-gen-babakir-zebari-iraqi-army-unable-cope/story?id=11382246
.

“strength of our own nation”:
President Barack Obama, Address to the Nation on the End of Combat Operations in Iraq, August 31, 2010,
https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2010/08/31/remarks-president-address-nation-end-combat-operations-iraq
.

20,000 and 24,000:
Gordon and Trainor,
The Endgame,
p. 655.

3,500 troops:
Ibid., p. 670.

memorandum of understanding:
Ibid., loc. 13059.

“our shared security”:
President Barack Obama, Remarks at Joint Press Conference with Prime Minister Maliki of Iraq, December 12, 2011,
https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/12/12/remarks-president-obama-and-prime-minister-al-maliki-iraq-joint-press-co
.

“march toward home”:
President Barack Obama, Remarks at Fort Bragg, December 14, 2011,
https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/12/14/remarks-president-and-first-lady-end-war-iraq
.

“of the U.S. forces”:
Gordon and Trainor,
The Endgame,
p. 671.

“were my decision”:
President Barack Obama, Statement on Iraq, August 9, 2014,
https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/08/09/statement-president-iraq
.

“end of the year”:
President Barack Obama, Address to the Nation on the End of Combat Operations in Iraq, August 31, 2010,
https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2010/08/31/remarks-president-address-nation-end-combat-operations-iraq
.

“of the Middle East”:
Obama-Romney Third Presidential Debate, October 22, 2012,
http://debates.org/index.php?page=october-22-2012-the-third-obama-romney-presidential-debate
.

“Ending the war”:
President Barack Obama, State of the Union Address, January 24, 2012,
https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/01/24/remarks-president-state-union-address
.

“job against the Taliban”:
Senator Barack Obama, Remarks to Veterans of Foreign Wars, August 19, 2008,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/19/AR2008081901532.html
.

“must be achieved”:
President Barack Obama, Remarks on a New Strategy for Afghanistan, March 27, 2009,
https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-a-new-strategy-afghanistan-and-pakistan
.

recommendations for resources:
McChrystal,
My Share of the Task,
p. 294.

“mission failure”:
Bob Woodward, “McChrystal: More Forces or ‘Mission Failure,' ”
Washington Post,
September 21, 2009,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/20/AR2009092002920.html
.

“best military advice”:
Ibid., p. 351.

“needed or appropriate”:
Gates,
Duty,
p. 371.

“poll numbers will be stronger”:
Ibid., p. 378.

“July of 2011”:
President Barack Obama, Address to the Nation on the Way Forward in Pakistan and Afghanistan, December 1, 2009,
https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-address-nation-way-forward-afghanistan-and-pakistan
.

“about getting out”:
Gates,
Duty,
p. 378.

“summer in 2012”:
President Barack Obama, Remarks on the Way Forward in Afghanistan, June 22, 2011,
https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/06/22/remarks-president-way-forward-afghanistan
.

Pakistani border:
General Jack Keane, Testimony before the United States Senate Armed Services Committee, January 27, 2015.

“tide of war is receding”:
President Barack Obama, Remarks on the Way Forward in Afghanistan, June 22, 2011,
https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/06/22/remarks-president-way-forward-afghanistan
.

“It was not”:
Justin Fishel, “Obama Troop Cuts Went Beyond Largest Withdrawal Offered by Top General,” Fox News, June 28, 2011,
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/06/28/obama-troop-cuts-went-beyond-largest-withdrawal-offered-by-top-general/
.

beyond military ones:
See Stephen F. Hayes, “General Reveals That Obama Ignored Military's Advice on Afghanistan,”
Weekly Standard,
June 28, 2011; Mark Mazetti and Scott Shane, “Petraeus Says Afghan Pullout Is Beyond What He Advised,”
New York Times,
June 23, 2011; Robert Siegel, Host, “Petraeus Faces Senate Confirmation Hearing,” NPR, June 23, 2011.

“as we've done in Iraq”:
President Barack Obama, Statement on Afghanistan, May 27, 2014,
https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/05/27/statement-president-afghanistan
.

throughout the country:
Lauren McNally and Paul Bucala, “The Taliban Resurgent: Threats to Afghanistan's Security,”
Institute for the Study of War,
March 2015, p. 26,
http://www.understandingwar.org/report/taliban-resurgent-threats-afghanistans-security
.

clear the Taliban:
Ibid., p. 14.

“in the community”:
Ibid.

“threaten our security”:
Vali Nasr,
The Dispensable Nation: American Foreign Policy in Retreat
(New York: Random House, 2013), p. 14.

“al Qaeda has been decimated”
Fred Lucas, “President Obama Has Touted Al Qaeda's Demise 32 Times Since the Benghazi Attacks,”
CNSNews.com
, November 1, 2012,
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/obama-touts-al-qaeda-s-demise-32-times-benghazi-attack-0
.

“flat out lying”:
James Kitfield, “Flynn's Last Interview: Iconoclast Departs DIA with a Warning,”
Breaking Defense
, August 7, 2014,
http://breakingdefense.com/2014/08/flynns-last-interview-intel-iconoclast-departs-dia-with-a-warning/
.

“and its affiliates”:
Seth G. Jones, “A Persistent Threat: The Evolution of Al Qa'ida and Other Salafi Jihadists,” Rand Corporation, 2014, p. x,
http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR637.html
.

“10 percent”:
Ibid.

“mixture of groups”:
Ibid., p. xi.

“we knew that”:
Stephen F. Hayes and Thomas Joscelyn, “How America Was Misled on al Qaeda's Demise,”
Wall Street Journal,
March 5, 2015,
http://www.wsj.com/articles/stephen-hayes-and-tomas-joscelyn-how-america-was-misled-on-al-qaedas-demise-1425600796
.

“bin Laden is dead”:
President Barack Obama, Remarks Accepting the Democratic Presidential Nomination, Charlotte, North Carolina, September 6, 2012, American Presidency Project,
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=101968
.

“is unacceptable”:
Secretary Hillary Clinton, Remarks at Andrews Air Force Base, September 14, 2012,
http://insider.foxnews.com/2012/09/14/transcript-video-hillary-clinton-speaks-at-ceremony-as-bodies-of-americans-killed-in-libya-arrive-in-the-us
.

“grew very violent”:
Ambassador Susan Rice, Remarks on September 16, 2012, appearances on
Fox News Sunday, Meet the Press, Face the Nation, This Week with
George Stephanopoulos, CNN State of the Union,
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2012/11/16/flashback-what-susan-rice-said-about-benghazi/
.

“common humanity”:
President Barack Obama, Remarks at the United Nations General Assembly, September 25, 2012,
https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/09/25/remarks-president-un-general-assembly
.

claimed credit:
Stephen F. Hayes, “The Benghazi Talking Points and How They Were Changed to Obscure the Truth,”
Weekly Standard,
May 13, 2013,
http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/benghazi-talking-points_720543.html?page=3
.