Obama on Afghanistan

According to this article in today's NYT, President Obama reassured lawmakers yesterday that "he would not substantially reduce American forces in Afghanistan or shift the mission to just hunting terrorists there, but he indicated that he remained undecided about the major troop buildup proposed by his commanding general."

This is reassuring in light of my post yesterday about the Biden approach that would focus on hunting down Al Qaeda leaders with drones and Special Forces. This, of course, is certainly a good idea, except for any signal it might send about an eventual drawdown or withdrawal of US forces. By no means am I in a position to provide counsel on the appropriate level of troops, but I was moved to point out that signalling a drawdown or withdrawal generates an incentive for Pakistan to prop up the Taliban. However, the NYT article makes clear that Biden's approach "would increase the use of such surgical strikes while leaving the overall size of the American force in Afghanistan roughly at the 68,000 troops currently authorized."