President Barack Obama meets with Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, chief of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, aboard Air Force One in Copenhagen, Denmark last week.
He is right of course, that is assuming he makes a decision to actually build on his Afpak strategy or pull out. As of now withdrawal does not appear to be in the works, but a status-quo decision to prevent the weakening of his political capital with the left during the health care debate is always possible:
WASHINGTON (Oct. 5, 2009) – President Barack Obama’s decisions on the next phase of the Afghan war will be among the most important of his presidency, said Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, who vowed to faithfully execute his orders.
Gates’ remarks today come amid ongoing discussion among top national security officials about the way forward in Afghanistan, a debate said to be rife with varied proposals ranging from troop increases to a narrower, scaled-down approach.
“I believe the decisions that the president will make for the next stage of the Afghanistan campaign will be among the most important of his presidency, so it is important that we take our time to do all we can to get this right,” he told an audience at the annual conference here of the Association of the U.S. Army.
Top national security advisors convened at the White House last week for the first in a series of high-level talks expected over the coming weeks to focus on the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan. The discussions are unfolding some six months after a new strategy articulated the need to refocus the mission on thwarting al-Qaida and its allies.
We shall see.
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