Obama's top security advisers engaged in 'bitter civil war' over Afghanistan

Barack Obama's top national security advisers are fighting a bitter internal battle over policy in Afghanistan, it was claimed today.
A new book by veteran journalist Bob Woodward lifts the lid on an administration deeply torn over which strategy to pursue.
Although many of the internal divisions described are now public knowledge the book, Obama's Wars, offers new details and suggests the disagreements were more intense than previously known, The New York Times reported on Tuesday.

Under pressure: Barack Obama (left) has been battling infighting among his own aides as well as the war in Afghanistan according to veteran journalist Bob Woodward (right)

The newspaper obtained a copy of the book in advance of its release next Monday.
Extracts include claims that some of the president's chief advisers are doubtful his new strategy will work and have been fighting with each other for 20 months.
The book describes Obama as a 'professorial president' who assigned 'homework' to advisers.
But he also apparently bristled at what he saw as military commanders' attempts to force him into a decision to triple troop levels in Afghanistan, the Times reported.
The White House had no comment on disclosures in the book on Tuesday night, the newspaper said.
Woodward, an associate editor at the Washington Post, rose to fame reporting on the Watergate scandal, which led to the registration of President Richard Nixon in 1974.

Frank: Joe Biden (left) described special envoy Richard Holbrooke as the 'most egotistical b*****d I've ever met'

Some of his new books most explosive claims include:

• Obama's special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, is quoted as saying of the strategy that 'it can't work'
• Vice President Joe Biden, who also had doubts about the strategy, called Holbrooke 'the most egotistical b*****d I've ever met.'
• Administration officials expressed scorn for Obama's national security adviser, James Jones, while he referred to some of the president's other aides as 'the water bugs' or 'the Politburo.'
• General David Petraeus, now the Afghanistan commander, branded David Axelrod, the president's senior adviser, 'a complete spin doctor'
• Petraeus was effectively banned by the administration from the Sunday talk shows but worked private channels with Congress and the news media, the report said.
• Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, thought his deputy, General James Cartwright, went behind his back, while Cartwright dismissed Mullen because he 'wasn't a war fighter.'
• Defence Secretary Robert Gates worried Jones would be succeeded by his deputy, Thomas Donilon, who he thought would be a 'disaster.'

The book says Obama concluded from the start that 'I have two years with the public on this' and pressed advisers for ways to avoid a big escalation, the Times reported.
I want an exit strategy,' he implored at one meeting, the newspaper reported.

The forever war? Soldiers from the A Chinook transports U.S. infantrymen in the southern part of Afghanistan

Obama's Wars draws upon classified documents and interviews with key players in the administration, including Obama, according to publisher Simon & Schuster, which is owned by CBS Corp.
The book also discloses that the CIA has a 3,000-man 'covert army' in Afghanistan comprised mostly of Afghans who capture and kill Taliban fighters and seek support in tribal areas, according to the The Times
There are also claims that the U.S. has intelligence showing Afghan President Hamid Karzai suffers from manic-depression, and is on medication for the disease.