"Military thwarted president seeking choice in Afghanistan" Woodward

 ""So what's my option? You have given me one option," Obama said, directly challenging the military leadership at the table, including Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen and Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, then head of U.S. Central Command.

"We were going to meet here today to talk about three options," Obama said sternly. "You agreed to go back and work those up."

Mullen protested. "I think what we've tried to do here is present a range of options.""  Woodward

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Having played a supporting role as a character in one of Woodward's books I have some sympathy for these characters.  Woodward has achieved so much leverage in Washington that his characters fear to refuse to talk to him.  If they do so, they will find themselves described anyway without the benefit of their point of view.  Nevertheless, he serves a useful purpose by shining light onto what many want to keep hidden.

It is an old staff college trick to present the accustomed three desired options in such a way that there really is only one option.  This is dishonest and, indeed disrespectful of the president's office.  

Gamesmanship.  Trickery.  Defiance.

Generals Cartwright and Lute are the heroes of this piece.  If Woodward got it right, they stood by the spirit of their oaths as officers of the great republic rather than Byzantine courtier generals.  pl 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/26/AR2010092603981.html