The top U.S. general and the U.S ambassador in Afghanistan have been told to prepare to testify before Congress as early as next week, according to White House and other U.S. officials, giving an indication of how and when President Obama plans to announce his war strategy.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the plans have yet to be announced, said that Gen. Stanley McChrystal and Ambassador Karl Eikenberry have not been given a date for their appearance before committees that would consider additional war-financing requests.
But, the officials said, the two have been told that their testimony would quickly follow Obama's announcement, so that they could offer details and support for the president's strategy for how to proceed with the eight-year-old war. Opinion polls show that most Americans believe it is no longer worth fighting.
Last night, Obama met in the White House Situation Room with his senior national-security advisers, including Eikenberry and McChrystal, who was expected to join the session by teleconference from Kabul. In an effort to weaken the Taliban insurgency and destroy al-Qaida, Obama is choosing from several strategic options, all of which call for deploying thousands more U.S. troops and would cost tens of billions of dollars a year.
McChrystal, the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, has requested 40,000 additional U.S. troops to reverse the Taliban's momentum and to train Afghan forces more quickly. But Eikenberry, a retired lieutenant general who served in Afghanistan, opposes additional troop deployments until President Hamid Karzai roots out corruption in his administration and takes other steps to strengthen the country.
Given their opposing views, their congressional testimony could prove politically delicate.
Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, told reporters yesterday that Obama is still asking for information on "not just how we get people there, but what's the strategy for getting them out." He said that the subject would be the focus of the review session last night, the last one that has been scheduled.
For much of the fall, Obama has been meeting with his war council to determine a new strategy in Afghanistan, where 68,000 U.S. troops are currently deployed. Now he has 18 weekdays left to announce his decision -- not counting Thanksgiving break -- before he leaves for his Christmas holiday vacation in Hawaii.
His schedule for the rest of November and December is filling up with other activities and appearances, some of which could create public-relations challenges if they happen too close to the presentation of an expanded war effort.
Administration officials have said that Obama will not outline his decision until after Thanksgiving, and it appears increasingly probable that he will do so early next week. In addition to McChrystal and Eikenberry, senior administration officials whose support for the strategy is essential are preparing to be in town for possible appearances before Congress.
For example, Greek officials announced yesterday that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will not be attending next week's Athens meeting of foreign ministers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Defense Secretary Robert Gates also has no announced plans to travel next week.
Obama will probably have to make the announcement early next week because he has scheduled a "jobs summit" at the White House on Dec. 3.
The next day he plans to travel to Allentown, Pa., to talk about jobs and the economy.
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