Strategy Shift for Afghanistan?

Published December 24, 2015

A senior administration official tells Fox that President Obama and his national security team began fresh analysis of the Afghanistan strategy on Sept. 13 in the White House situation room as part of an on-going review of war policy.

"There's this idea that there's a change of strategy looming,but there are difficult questions to ask as we continue to review this," the official said.

"There are developments on the ground that we have had to look at and the election has raised some issue in regards to our efforts to increase good governance. We constantly reassess what is happening and challenge previous assumptions."

The official described as "flatly untrue" any implication the White House sought to delay the arrival of Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal's request for more US combat forces as part of an intensified counter-insurgency strategy.

"That is wildly unfair," the senior adviser said. "We want to go through this in a logical fashion."

The adviser said Obama is searching for the best advice on tailoring a post-election strategy that fits with the reality of a somewhat suspect re-election victory by President Hamid Karzai. Obama sent more troops to enhance security for that election with the hope a clean Karzai victory could bring legitimacy to Afghanistan's governing institutions and entice NATO nations to beef up support for civilian efforts on development, humanitarian assistance and basic government functioning. The disputed election results have complicated those efforts and Obama is weighing the benefits of sending more US troops as he assesses what post-election mission they would be sent to achieve.

The adviser denied tension between Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vice President Biden on the relative weight that should be given - in troops, dollars and diplomatic emphasis - to pursuring Al Qaeda and Taliban forces in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"It would be inaccurate to describe any of these conversations as contentious," the adviser said.

URL

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/strategy-shift-for-afghanistan