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President Barack Obama speaks alongside Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other members of his cabinet in the Cabinet Room of the White House - Source: Reuters -
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President Barack Obama began a meeting with top advisers on
Afghanistan as he closes in on a decision about whether to send
thousands more US troops to confront a growing insurgency.
The war council with Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and other officials
got under way at 8:13 pm local time in the White House Situation
Room.
It is the ninth such meeting as Obama nears a decision on whether
to add as many as 40,000 troops to an eight-year-old war that began
after the September 11 attacks and that has begun to try the
patience of Americans.
US officials and Western diplomats said they expected Obama's
announcement next week, before a NATO meeting on December 7 in
Europe in which alliance members could agree to send thousands of
additional trainers.
The White House has given no firm date for the news, but "the first
possible time would be sometime next week," presidential spokesman
Robert Gibbs said.
There are about 110,000 foreign troops, including 68,000 US
soldiers, in Afghanistan fighting Taliban insurgents.
The president has been reviewing war strategy in Afghanistan for
the past two months after Army General Stanley McChrystal, the top
US commander there, said in a report that conditions were
deteriorating and 40,000 additional troops were needed as the
minimum to quell the insurgency.
Americans divided
Obama's top national security advisers, including Gates and Admiral
Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, are believed to
have rallied around options that would send 30,000 to 40,000 more
troops and trainers.
Obama faces conflicting pressures on Afghanistan.
Americans are divided about whether to send more troops.
Republicans in Congress insist more troops are needed to prevent a
Taliban resurgence, while his own Democrats in general would like
to see the United States find a way out of Afghanistan.
Two veteran Democratic lawmakers have called for imposing a war tax
to pay for a troop increase.
The two were David Obey, chairman of the House of
Representatives Appropriations Committee, and Carl Levin, chairman
of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
A congressional aide said that under the idea, families earning
under $US150,000 a year would be taxed at 1 percent of their tax
rates.
The tax would be higher for those in the
$US150,000-to-$US250,000 range and those making $US250,000 or
more.
Democratic Senator Daniel Inouye, chairman of the Senate
Appropriations Committee, opposed it.
"Someone has to demonstrate how it can be done," Inouye
said.
Gibbs said it was premature for him to comment since Obama had yet
to settle on a troop plan.
Former Vice President Dick Cheney told conservative talk radio host
Scott Hennen that Obama was taking too long to decide.
"The delay is not cost-free," he said.
"Every day that goes by raises doubts in the minds of our
friends in the region about what you're going to do, raises doubts
in the minds of the troops."
Gibbs defended the president.
"This is a complicated decision," he said.
"I think the American people want the president to take the time
to get this decision right, rather than to make a hasty
decision."
A Washington Post-ABC News poll found last week that 46% of
Americans supported a large influx of troops to fight insurgents
and train the Afghan military, while 45% backed a smaller number of
new US forces more narrowly focused on training.
Obama and his advisers have debated options ranging from sending
tens of thousands more troops to limiting troop increases and
concentrating on attacking al Qaeda targets.
One factor that has complicated the deliberations has been concerns
about corruption in Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government.
Obama has said he wants to ensure he has a reliable partner there.
