President Barack Obama Wednesday is expected to receive a much-anticipated report on the war in Afghanistan — one that could prove a major test of his presidency.
The classified assessment by Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, includes a revised strategy for dealing with extremists and is likely a precursor to a request for more troops.
A central conundrum for Obama will be whether to commit more forces to an increasingly unpopular war and further alienate his political base, or risk losing the war’s remaining supporters with half-measures that could drag the conflict out.
The administration has signaled a willingness to consider more troops for Afghanistan, but with a clear caveat that the blame for the escalation belongs to former President George W. Bush for botching the job.
“It’s going to take some doing, it’s going to take more resources, which the president has dedicated to this problem,” said White House press secretary Robert Gibbs. “But understand, this was under-resourced, underfunded, undermanned and ignored for years. And that’s not going to change overnight.”
Until recently, Republicans have formed the core of support for Obama’s ramped-up efforts in Afghanistan, while some in his own party have called for a drawdown of troops. Conservative columnist George Will has called on Obama to cut his losses and get out of Afghanistan — touching off a ferocious debate on the Right.
That’s a debate Obama doesn’t want right now, as he tries holding together a fragile coalition backing the still open-ended conflict. In an odd twist, the Republican National Committee Tuesday afternoon sent an e-mail to reporters urging Obama to “stand strong” on the war.
“The fear is that he will give in to the political left, which of course does not want to increase troops, and because of political considerations agree to a smaller number — and I think that would be detrimental to achieving the objectives and risks losing both sides for the war,” said Lisa Curtis, an expert on the region at the Heritage Foundation.
She added, “It’s going to be a tough political call for him and a real test of his leadership skills.”
McChrystal currently has about 103,000 troops in Afghanistan, of which 63,000 are American. Under a schedule previously approved by Obama, another 5,000 American troops are set to arrive by the end of the year.
Some have speculated that the Pentagon could seek 40,000 additional troops.
Another calculation for Obama is the political risk to himself and his party. A new CBS News poll found fewer than half of Americans, 48 percent, approve of Obama’s handling of the war, and 52 percent believe the war is going badly.
Scott Payne, a national security expert at Third Way, a liberal Washington think tank, said the administration knows it has to do a better sales job.
“The president is going to say, and I think he’s right, that you don’t make foreign policy decisions based on polling,” Payne said. “That said, they are clearly cognizant of it and getting out in front of it.”
