Obama’s advisors can’t agree on what next in Afghanistan
Back home, Obama has a split between his advisors on Afghanistan, mirroring a division among Democrats over whether to send thousands more troops to a war over which the US public has lost stomach. White House sources say that with his military commanders and congressional Republicans wanting more troops, Obama pressed his national security team for their views during a three-hour session in the Situation Room – the one TV audiences know all too well from The West Wing. Obama’s chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and national security advisor General James Jones aren’t as supportive of sending troops as the military and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, while Vice President Joe Biden favours targeting al-Qaeda fighters hiding in Pakistan. The Situation Room meeting follows General Stanley McChrystal’s critical assessment of the war effort, with him apparently wanting to add 30,000 and 40,000 troops to the current US force there.
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