U.S. Patience Frays As Obama Weighs Afghan Troops

US patience frays as Obama weighs Afghan troops

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By Olivier Knox (AFP) – 10 hours ago

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama will likely soon face a wrenching decision on whether to send more troops to Afghanistan, even as much of the US public has turned against the war and his own popularity has waned.

The president, who accused predecessor George W. Bush during the 2008 campaign of favoring a "war of choice" in Iraq over a "war of necessity" in Afghanistan, has already ordered 21,000 more soldiers to the fight.

But Obama's hand-picked commander of US forces in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, is widely expected to call for even more troops in a formal review of the war-fighting strategy anticipated within the next two weeks.

That could prove to be a major political headache for an administration locked in pitched battles for congressional approval of its sweeping domestic agenda, including a health care overhaul and measures to fight climate change.

And recent public opinion polls show Obama's job approval ratings slipping, while narrow majorities say the Afghanistan war is not worth fighting and only about a quarter of Americans support escalating US troop levels.

In the US Congress, lawmakers who support the war have said the president needs to do more to sell his strategy, while some high profile critics have said it's time to wind down the nearly eight-year-old conflict.

On Monday, Democratic Senator Russell Feingold, a skeptic of the strategy, objected to "pouring more and more troops into Afghanistan" and for the first time called for a "flexible timetable" for withdrawal.

"We have to maintain the ability to go after Al-Qaeda within Afghanistan. It doesn?t mean we give that up. But simply continuing operations there -- and apparently there are going to be requests for many more troops -- I?m not sure it?s a wise idea," he said.

And Democratic Senator Bob Casey said Monday he had warned Afghan President Hamid Karzai during a visit to Afghanistan "that the American people expect to see progress and that their patience is not unlimited."

And Casey, on a conference call from neighboring Pakistan, said the Obama administration had "promised" to provide lawmakers "in the next couple of weeks" with a set of benchmarks for measuring progress in the war.

"It's very important that the American people see that. This can't be open-ended," warned the Pennsylvania lawmaker.

Democratic Senator John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has said he will hold hearings to assess Obama's strategy in the coming months and welcomed the decision to craft benchmarks for progress.

The Pentagon has dodged widespread speculation that McChrystal plans to request more troops, and the White House has brushed off questions about whether there are enough boots on the ground to achieve victory.

"We're going to hold off until we get that assessment back, not prejudge or predetermine based on reports that are coming out of the region, and make a decision accordingly," spokesman Bill Burton said Monday.

But the New York Times reported late Sunday that US military commanders in Afghanistan have told Obama's chief envoy for the region, Richard Holbrooke, over the past two days that they do not have enough troops to do the job.

Holbrooke, who visited all four regional command centers in Afghanistan, heard from military brass that the additional troops Obama dispatched to the front have helped but that the overall numbers are still too low, it said.

The total size of the US force in Afghanistan is now about 62,000. It was unclear whether the commanders told Holbrooke exactly how many additional troops might be required, reported the daily.

US media have reported that McChrystal is considering three options, including a "high risk" strategy of adding just 15,000 troops to the 68,000 troops that would be on the ground by year's end.

A "medium risk" strategy would add 25,000 troops and a "low risk" option would be to send in 45,000.

Senator Richard Lugar, the top Republican on Kerry's committee, warned Sunday on CNN television that Obama has to sell his strategy.

"The president really has to face the fact that his own leadership here is critical. He really can?t just leave this to the Congress, to General McChrystal and say ?folks, discuss this? after the report comes in," he said.