Behind The Scenes: Biden Recounts Back-and-Forth on Bin Laden Raid.

In the anguished White House debates over the war in Afghanistan, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. argued consistently to stress counterterrorism over the more costly strategy of nation-building. It turns out, though, that Mr. Biden warned against the most sensational counterterrorism operation of the Obama presidency: the commando raid that killed Osama bin Laden. In a speech last weekend to House Democrats at their annual retreat in Cambridge, Md., Mr. Biden said he had advised President Obama not to go ahead with the raid on the compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, arguing that the military needed more time to make sure Bin Laden was in the complex. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]