Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Wire: White House Procrastinating on Afghan War

Off the Wire

Off the Wire:

Taking the eye off the ball in Afghanistan.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 14, 2009 -- Newswire services today carried an Associated Press analysis concluding that the Obama administration is holding off major decisions that could put U.S. forces on a firmer war footing in Afghanistan even as doubts grow about whether the United States can win there.

Many military and diplomatic leaders have urged President Barack Obama to send thousands more Marines, soldiers and pilots to try to reverse Afghanistan's crumbling security situation, AP said.

But White House spokesman Robert Gibbs has said no decision about adding troops is expected for "weeks and weeks," following what he described as intensive evaluation, AP said. The troop decision will be a first indicator of whether Obama intends to double down in Afghanistan, becoming a wartime president in earnest.

The AP analysis noted the following details:
Leading Democrats in Congress have signaled they do not support a troop increase now, and maybe not at all. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, has the unhappy task of telling the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday why the United States should stay the course and commit to what he calls a "properly resourced counterinsurgency effort."

Mullen's long-scheduled nomination hearing for a second term as the president's chief military adviser will be chaired by Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., who warned the White House last week not to push for a big troop increase. He wants the Pentagon to focus on quicker training for Afghan security forces instead.

Mullen has sounded increasingly alarmed about the growing technical capabilities of a resurgent Taliban and about the lackluster support among Afghans for the foreign-run enterprise that purports to protect them from a homegrown insurgent movement.

"Time is not on our side," Mullen said this month.
See link below for details.

(Report from newswire sources.)

Source: Analysis: White House postponing hard calls on war

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