There will be no decision from the White House on Afghan strategy this coming week. The Obama administration has told Reuters that the decision will not come until after the Thanksgiving weekend.
This delay in making the decision is getting quite absurd. When the election process was still going on, there was an argument that holding back the decision on how many troops to send gave the Americans leverage over Karzai. But now that Karzai has been sworn in for another term this argument no longer holds. Indeed, the delay appears to be making the situation worse. Note this report from Tom Ricks on a speech last week by David Kilcullen, the counter-insurgency expert whose thinking was so important to the military success of the surge in Iraq.
“Without quite saying so, he also indicated that time is a factor right now.
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