Gibbs: Obama Now In "Decision-making phase" on Afghanistan

After five intense meetings on his war-fighting strategy in Afghanistan, President Obama is finished gathering data and is now "in the decision-making phase," White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told Fox.

"We have finished at the broad landscape level," Gibbs said. "We are in the decision-making phase now."

Gibbs said exhaustive Situation Room briefings on future US troops levels, training of Afghan Army and police forces, civilian assistance and the stability of President Hamid Karzai's government are largely complete.

"The meetings that go now will flow to the decision-making phase," Gibbs said. "All the discussions so far will impact the ultimate decisions."

Gibbs said he had no idea what Obama will decide on future US troop levels, though he repeated his assessment from today's briefing that troop levels will not be cut and the main decision looming is by how much to increase the US combat footprint.

"I don't know how many weeks we are away from a decision," Gibbs said. "I'd say several weeks."

Obama will have at least one more Afghanistan Situation Room meeting next week. The day and time has not been set.

Wednesday's meeting, Gibb said, focused intensely on security conditions in Afghanistan. The two biggest questions: how the US could secure territory and give the Afghan government the tools necessary to train more Army and police forces. Increasing Afghanistan's ability to deal with Taliban and Al Qaeda attacks is a precursor to any consideration of reducing US forces, which now number roughly 68,000.

"There were a series of questions on the civilian side, a series of questions on the military side related to training," Gibbs said. "There were questions on the political situation and possible increases in civilian resources and ANSF training."

ANSF is the acronym for Afghan National Security Forces and refers to the Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police. Gibbs said Obama is also trying to determine the metrics or benchmarks he and Congress will use to measure the progress of Afghan Army and police training and assess the performance of other government ministries.

"There has been some progress in all of these areas," Gibbs said. "But there's a long way to go."

Gibbs pointed to an inches-thick binder on his desk containing materials for Wednesday's meeting and said the senior military and diplomatic officials who have taken part in the five Afghanistan meetings produced a separate binder of similar size for each. He said for each hour of the president's time in the Situation Room, senior military and diplomatic advisers have, on average, devoted two hours of prep time to answer Obama's questions and shape the debate on the Taliban, Al Qaeda and other governance and development issues.

As to the perception in the minds of some that Obama appears indecisive, Gibbs said the critics confuse deliberation with dawdling.

"We have a process," Gibbs said. "It's the most intense the Afghanistan war has seen in 8 years. It takes time."

Plus, Gibbs said, the country and Congress need to have confidence in Obama's ultimate decision on troop strength and strategy. A lengthy process that tries to examine all angles of the conflict can produce such confidence, he said.

"The president is thinking about the American public and conveying to them what is next," Gibbs said. "There is a war-weary public."