Obama Still Undecided About Troops On Eve Of Asia Trip

Christina Bellantoni | November 11, 2009, 6:46PM

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President Obama and his war council

Afghanistan, Barbara Boxer, War council, White House

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President Obama completed his eighth meeting of the war council this afternoon without making a decision about how many more troops to send to Afghanistan.

The Situation Room meeting, held before Obama leaves for a more than week-long trip to Asia, ran from 2:30 to 4:50 p.m.

Administration officials continue to say Obama is considering his options as the Washington Post reports the top ambassador is unhappy with troop levels increasing.

Per the White House:

The President and his team discussed the length of time that it would take to implement the options he's been presented.
The President believes that we need to make clear to the Afghan government that our commitment is not open ended. After years of substantial investments by the American people, governance in Afghanistan must improve in a reasonable period of time to ensure a successful transition to our Afghan partner.

Resources were discussed at the meeting. Contrary to published reports, the President has not made a decision about the options presented.

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9 comments

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Water

November 11, 2009 7:37 PM

please bring the troops home.
do not send more.

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Beagle

November 11, 2009 10:25 PM

The latest news is the President has rejected all of the four reported options presented to him. He refused to commit troop level increase without exit strategy. If nothing else, we should give the President a huge credit for looking after the best interest of the country in the long run at the risk of quick political gain. Now- that's what leaders are made of.

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kash79

November 11, 2009 10:34 PM in reply to Beagle

Apparently, briefing from a US ambassador in Afghanistan, weighed heavily on his decision. The recommendation was not to send any more troops until the Karzai administration shows some signs of fairness and stability.

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Beagle

November 11, 2009 10:50 PM in reply to kash79

Karzi's situation is a mess. May be this is a blessing in disguise in that it would force the administration to not send more troops in the absence of a real partner over there and in fact bring the guys home and end this war. What is the latest number of Al Qaedas in Afghanstan, less than a hundred?

By the way- I'm not sure which event occured first in today's development: The President's decision or the ambassador's recommendation?

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kash79

November 11, 2009 10:56 PM in reply to Beagle

From a couple of readings, my impression was President had been leaning to suspend further decision until someone finds him a exit strategy upfront. And the decision to suspend became inevitable following classified recommendations from the Ambassador.

From what I read, which ain't much, I think there will be a high volume troop escalation once they think they have a reasonable plan to exit or at least a strategy to severely draw down the troops.

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lousgirl84

November 12, 2009 9:20 AM in reply to Beagle

I agree. This Pres is the real deal. I am so glad he is running this country.

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TheRealFish

November 12, 2009 12:34 AM

I'm surprised this is the second time in two days I find myself being a bit of the headline police here, but... .

Everything I've gathered so far about this evolving story does not suggest to me that Obama is "Undecided About Afghan Troop Increase" as labeled on the TPM front page or "Still Undecided About Troops"(!) above [emphasis and exclamation point mine].

It appears he is seeing crap-for-all strategy being offered. One of the AP writers that broke the rejection story tonight was interviewed on Rachel Maddow's and said, in effect, that Obama told them all to go back to the drawing board and show him plans built around when and how we can turn operations over to Afghan leaders — that our committment to Afghanistan is not open ended.

Perhaps "Obama Rejects Military Tactical Troop Increases — Demands Clear Strategy" might be a more accurate headline?

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JoeTheMechanic

November 12, 2009 6:23 AM in reply to TheRealFish

I agree about the headline. Something big is happening. I sense that we're at a turning point.

It's not clear yet. I understand the wisdom of playing down the story until there is more substance. Still, I think something's up.

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JoeTheMechanic

November 12, 2009 6:49 AM

BBC is running a blog on the reject Generals/no troop increase story

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/markmardell/2009/11/sensible_caution_or_more_dithe.html
Sensible caution or more dithering?
Mark Mardell | 05:04 UK time, Thursday, 12 November 2009
“President Obama is turning the screws on Afghanistan's President, Hamid Karzai, demanding that he gets serious about corruption, before the US comes up with any more troops. The US ambassador to Afghanistan has been even more forthright, sending a supposedly secret cable urging against further troop deployments.”

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