White House Starts Review of Afghan Strategy

By PETER SPIEGEL and JONATHAN WEISMAN

WASHINGTON -- The White House began its review of the Afghan war strategy in earnest Tuesday, with senior administration officials meeting via videoconference with the top commander in Kabul, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, at the start of what could be weeks of debate over whether to send thousands of reinforcements.

White House officials said President Barack Obama will join in the discussions Wednesday, when he is expected to meet with Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, among other top officials.

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U.S. Marines watch as artillery is fired in the distance at their forward operating base in Farah Province, southern Afghanistan, on Tuesday.
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The White House unexpectedly decided to review its strategy in Afghanistan after a series of recent setbacks in the war, including allegations of fraud following last month's presidential elections and surging violence throughout the country. It begins just days after Gen. McChrystal submitted his request for as many as 40,000 additional troops to the Pentagon.

Some in the administration, notably Mr. Biden, have argued for a smaller military footprint and a tighter focus on counterterrorism as the best way forward.

Advocates of such a shift point to the effective use of Predator drone strikes to kill Taliban leaders in Pakistan. Two additional Predators are expected to be shifted soon to the region to patrol the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, according to people familiar with the decision, a move that would bring the total drones in the theater to a number the military has wanted for years.

Mr. Obama gave voice to a possible shift in emphasis on Tuesday when he spoke of "dismantling, disrupting, destroying the al Qaeda network" as the mission, without mentioning the Taliban. He also said the U.S. is working with the Afghans to bring security to the country.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D., Mass.), who is emerging as an influential voice in the debate, was at the White House on Thursday to meet with the vice president. He too has said he is leaning toward a smaller counterterrorism strategy to supplant a larger military counterinsurgency effort.

After an Oval Office meeting Tuesday with the new secretary general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Mr. Obama said the review will also include regular consultations with the U.S.'s NATO allies.

"This is not an American battle; this is a NATO mission, as well," Mr. Obama said following his meeting with Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the former Danish prime minister, who assumed the helm of NATO last month.

Robert Gibbs, the White House spokesman, said the early meetings are unlikely to include specific options for Mr. Obama to consider. Instead, he said, they will likely start with a discussion of Gen. McChrystal's dire assessment of the current war effort, compiled last month separately from his troop request.

"This will take place over the course of several meetings and a number of weeks as we look at where we are, what's happened in the intervening months since the president made a decision in March," Mr. Gibbs said.

Tuesday's White House meeting included Gen. David Petraeus, commander of all U.S. forces in the Middle East and central Asia; Mr. Gates; Gen. McChrystal; and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

After years of pressing European allies for additional forces in Afghanistan, Mr. Obama made no mention of having discussed NATO contributions to the war effort after his meeting with Mr. Rasmussen.

But in an address Monday night to the Atlantic Council in Washington, the NATO secretary general said he believed the alliance must send more trainers to Afghanistan quickly or it will be impossible to draw down foreign troops in the future.