White House Split on Afghanistan

Wednesdays meeting in the situation room sparked a crucial debate on which direction the President should follow for the future of our troops in Afghanistan.

WASHINGTON - In a meeting Wednesday President Barack ObamaBarack Obama sat down with Vice President Biden, cabinet secretaries and generals along with his adviser's and Intelligence chiefs in order to chart a new course for the war in Afghanistan.

The three hour meeting yielded one major agreement which was none of the choices will be easy.

Only six months ago the President announced in his words "a stronger, smarter and comprehensive strategy" for Afghanistan and it's neighbor Pakistan although yesterdays meeting was an effort to if necessary alter but most importantly clarify the mission in Afghanistan for the future.

To stay with his plan he laid out in March the President may need to consider a call for as many as 40 thousand more troops by General McChrystal as he warns that unless provided with more forces and an even more robust counterinsurgency strategy, the war in Afghanistan is most likely lost. The counterinsurgency strategy the General calls for would emphasize the protection of civilians before the engagement insurgents, reducing air strikes in order to minimize the risk of civilian casualties and to expand the training of Afghan security forces.

Another option is a plan offered by Vice President Joseph BidenJoseph Biden in which in his plan he advocates using fewer troops while focusing the main effort on hunting down the leaders of Al Qaeda although without a troop increase Biden's plan is feared by some could possibly lead to the collapse of the Afghan government.

The dilemma President Obama faces is that there may be no good options at this point and to continue along the same path taken for the past eight years could possibly leave our military in a quagmire for the unforeseen future.

Amongst the calls from some on the left to cut loses and bring our troops home along with some on the right advocating the continuation of the war until a yet to be defined victory is achieved the President finds himself in a situation that very few if any would envy.

Wednesday's meeting is the first of five meetings planed for President Obama and his adviser's to rethink the strategy while also reviewing the declining political and security situation found today in Afghanistan. According to an administration official as reported by The Wall Street Journal the President "focused his questioning on the current threat posed by Al Qaeda and whether a resurgent Taliban would give Al Qaeda leaders a new haven to regroup."

Defense Secretary Gates "now worries that counterinsurgency might no longer be a viable approach for countering the Taliban violence roiling once-stable parts of north and west Afghanistan" a senior defense official said in an interview Wednesday with The Wall Street Journal.

With his thinking seemingly evolving, it still remains to be seen if Secretary Gates will move more towards the Vice President's push to go with a "counter-terror" strategy replacing the counterinsurgency approach. Although as of yesterday according to Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell who said Mr. Gates "remains opposed to such a strategy" and "does not think that is a path to success in Afghanistan."

Which ever way the President decides to proceed critics on both sides say the worst option of all would be is to stay the course and adopt some version of the status quo.