The Washington Post and The New York Times both published excerpts Wednesday of an upcoming book by Bob Woodward, an associate editor at the Post, who interviewed President Obama and his advisors on the war strategy.

The accounts say Mr. Obama was pushing for an “exit” and no long-term “nation-building” in Afghanistan, while top military commanders only offered options of sending in more U.S. troops to fight the Taliban insurgency.

The president eventually agreed to send an additional 30,000 troops to the country, but announced a deadline for U.S. forces to begin withdrawing in July of 2011.

The U.S. special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, was quoted as saying the new strategy will not work.

Excerpts from the book also highlight deep personal rifts between administration officials.

An unnamed senior administration official downplayed the division Wednesday, saying President Obama comes across in the war review as a leader who is analytical, strategic and decisive.

The Washington Post says the book also discloses that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency has a 3,000-man paramilitary army made up of mostly Afghans.  The elite force is said to conduct sensitive, covert operations into Pakistan against al-Qaida and Taliban havens.

Another excerpt says U.S. intelligence reports show Afghan President Hamid Karzai has been diagnosed with manic depression.

Obama’s Wars is set to be released on Monday.

Woodward is best known for his work, along with journalist Carl Bernstein, uncovering the Watergate scandal that ultimately led to the resignation of former president Richard Nixon.

Secretary Gates called Wednesday’s formal handover in Baghdad the moment both countries have been working for and hoping for, a moment he said was “made possible by the dramatic security gains of the last three-and-a-half years.”

He said attacks are at their lowest levels since the beginning of the war in 2003, in spite of the recent series of incidents. He also noted that U.S. forces have not had to call in an air strike anywhere in Iraq for more than six months, and he said the remnants of al-Qaida’s Iraqi organization have been cut off from its commanders abroad.

Still, he warned, all is not well in Iraq. He noted the ongoing political stalemate and lingering sectarian tensions, and he said al-Qaida in Iraq is “beaten, but not gone.”

“This is not a time for premature victory parades or self-congratulation, even as we reflect with pride on what our troops and their Iraqi partners have accomplished. We still have a job to do and responsibilities there,” said the defense secretary.

Gates said the U.S. military will continue to work with the Iraqi Army and police forces, to train the Iraqi Navy and Air Force, and to help with operations against terrorist groups. He noted that so far 4,427 U.S. troops have been killed in the war, and more than 34,000 have been injured, some of them very seriously.

The secretary also said the Iraq War diverted American attention and resources from Afghanistan, where he said U.S. troops defeated the Taliban in 2001 and 2002, only to see the group reestablish itself and escalate its insurgency. That is a problem the United States is able to address only now, with a decreased troop commitment in Iraq.

The last of the additional forces President Barack Obama ordered to Afghanistan are just arriving, and the next 12 months will be critical in the effort to demonstrate the same type of counterinsurgency approach can work there that worked in Iraq. The troop increase, designed to fight the insurgents and enable engagement with local people in key areas, brings the American total close to 100,000, with nearly 50,000 more from other allied countries. Secretary Gates noted that is more than three times as many as when he took office not quite four years ago.

Still, he he said a “tough, hard campaign” lies ahead in Afghanistan, “with its share of setbacks and heartbreak.” “Success there is not inevitable. But with the right strategy and the willingness to see it through, it is possible. And it is worth the fight,” he said.

Gates called victory in Afghanistan “essential to the safety of the United States.” He said it would deliver “a strategic defeat to al-Qaida,” roll back Taliban gains, and build Afghanistan’s ability to defend itself and prevent the re-establishment of terrorist safe havens like the one the Taliban provided to al-Qaida to plan and launch the September 11th attacks on the United States in 2001.

Maurizio Giuliano, a spokesman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said Monday if the Pakistan government’s calculations are correct, the scale of the disaster could be worse than Haiti’s January earthquake, the 2004 tsunami, and the 2005 Pakistan earthquake combined.

New downpours

Relief workers in Pakistan say continued heavy rains have worsened the situation in the country where raging floodwaters have killed more than 1,600 people and affected 15 million.

The floods have destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes and washed away roads, bridges, crops and livestock.  

New downpours have hampered relief efforts in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and spread the floods to the agriculture heartland of Punjab and further south along the Indus River into Sindh province.

In the northern area of Gilgit-Baltistan Sunday, at least 28 people were killed in landslides, but officials said up to 40 people were feared dead.

Relief efforts

Pakistan’s army is leading the relief efforts, but bad weather is hampering helicopter flights carrying emergency aid to victims still trapped in remote areas.

The United Nations says Pakistan will need billions of dollars to recover from its worst floods in history.

U.N. official Guiliano told VOA that shelter for the millions of victims is the biggest and most urgent concern.

Prime minister’s visit

Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani visited the flood-hit areas of Sindh province Sunday and appealed for more international aid.

He said the crisis has spiraled beyond the government’s capacity, adding the country has been set back many years because of the devastation.

The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said its workers were reporting shortages of food, medicine and clean water.  The NATO alliance pledged to help transport aid to the region.

The World Health Organization warned that without access to safe water, Pakistanis are at high risk of contracting water-borne diseases such as diarrhea and cholera.

Some information for this report was provided by AP and AFP.

VOA’s Sean Maroney visited a flood relief camp in Nowshera, Pakistan and has this report:

The United Nations peacekeeping force in south Lebanon has backed Israel’s version of events following the most serious border clash in four years on Tuesday.  UNIFIL says Israeli forces were on their own territory when Lebanese troops opened fire.

Lebanese version of events

Lebanon said the Israelis had crossed into Lebanese territory while trying to prune a cypress tree for better visibility, and that the army acted in self-defense against Israeli “aggression.”

Lebanese Information Minister Tarik Mitri stands by that account.  He told a news conference in Beirut that Lebanon and the U.N. disagree on the demarcation of the border.

“There is always a distinction that needs to be made between the so-called ‘technical fence’ and the international borders between Israel and Lebanon, and the area where the tree that was to be cut yesterday is Lebanese territory,” Mitri said.

The incident in question

In Tuesday’s incident, an Israeli battalion commander was killed by Lebanese sniper fire and another officer seriously wounded.  Israel responded with tank fire and a helicopter strike, killing two Lebanese soldiers and a journalist.  It was the deadliest eruption of violence on the border since the Lebanon War in 2006.

Israeli Minister of Intelligence, Dan Meridor, said the UNIFIL report proves that the Lebanese Army launched an unprovoked attack on Israel.

He told Israel Radio that Lebanon must make sure that such incidents will not be repeated.

UN backs Israeli account

Backed by the U.N. account, Israeli troops returned to the border area on Wednesday and continued pruning trees and bushes which could provide cover for terrorists.  

Defense Minister Ehud Barak told Israel Radio that the army will continue to operate in Israeli territory.  He warned that if Lebanese forces open fire again, Israel would have to respond.

Lebanese troops watched the Israeli border operation from a distance, but this time they did not intervene.

Defense Secretary Gates told reporters that problems highlighted in the leaked documents about the war in Afghanistan have been publicly known for some time.  

But he did not downplay the possible damage caused by the release of what he called “a mountain of raw data and individual impressions” that is “devoid of context or analysis.”    

“The battlefield consequences of the release of these documents are potentially severe and dangerous for our troops, our allies and Afghan partners, and may well damage our relationships and reputation in that key part of the world,” said Robert Gates.

Gates said intelligence sources and methods as well as military tactics will become known as a result of the leak.  

Gates underscored that he believes the United States has a moral obligation to help Afghans whose security might have been jeopardized by the breach.

“That is one of the worst aspects of this, as far as I’m concerned,” he said. “Will people trust us?  Will people whose lives are on the line trust us to keep their identities secret?  Will other governments trust us to keep their documents and their intelligence secret?”

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen said he is appalled and outraged that the documents were leaked and published on the WikiLeaks website.  He lashed out at WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange and anyone who provided that website with the classified information.

“Mr. Assange can say whatever he likes about the greater good he thinks he and his source are doing,” said Admiral Mullen. “But the truth is they might already have on their hands the blood of some young soldier or that of an Afghan family.”

In an interview with VOA earlier this year, months before this week’s disclosure of military documents, Assange said his website takes great pains to protect its sources.

Gates said the Pentagon has not been in contact with Assange.  The defense secretary declined to directly answer a reporter’s question about whether WikiLeaks or the news media would be investigated for publishing the classified information.

“My basic position, though, is the investigation should go wherever it needs to go,” said Gates. “And one of the reasons that I asked the director of the FBI to partner with us in this is to ensure that it can go wherever it needs to go.”

Gates said the Pentagon is also taking action on the ground in war zones to prevent another such breach.  He said this will include tightening procedures for accessing and transporting classified information.  But, he said, striking a balance between security concerns and concerns for the security of U.S. forces will be difficult.   

“As a general proposition, we endeavor to push access to sensitive battlefield information down to where it is most useful – on the front lines – where as a practical matter, there are fewer restrictions and controls than at rear headquarters,” he said.

In a press conference in London on Monday, Assange said WikiLeaks has held back some 15,000 files from the approximate 96,000 documents it received in the leak.  He said those documents are being reviewed, and that some will be redacted and released.  

In April, WikiLeaks posted classified video of a 2007 helicopter strike in Iraq that killed two Iraqis who were on assignment for the Reuters news agency.  Two months later, the U.S. military announced it had detained that Army Specialist Bradley Manning for allegedly releasing classified information in connection with the incident.  

Manning, who had been deployed in Baghdad, had reportedly told a former hacker about providing classified combat video as well as some 260,000 classified diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks.