Tonight, after months of conferences with top advisors, President Obama has settled on a new strategy for Afghanistan. CBS News correspondent David Martin reports that the president will send a lot more troops and plans to keep a large force there, long term.
The president still has more meetings scheduled on Afghanistan, but informed sources tell CBS News he intends to give Gen. Stanley McChrystal most, if not all, the additional troops he is asking for.
McChrystal wanted 40,000 and the president has tentatively decided to send four combat brigades plus thousands more support troops. A senior officer says "that's close to what [McChrystal] asked for." All the president's military advisers have recommended sending more troops.
But they also have warned that troops alone will not win the war unless Afghan President Hamid Karzai cleans up his government.
"He's got to take concrete steps to eliminate corruption," Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said last week. "That means you have to rid yourself of those who are corrupt. You have to actually arrest and prosecute them."
Karzai? Clean up corruption? Good luck on that one. And looks like sitting over in Afghanistan for years to come is the possible plan.
UPDATE
Per MSNBC, the White House is pushing back on this story and said no decision has been made. One thing is crystal clear, the media and print think they know the CW (conventional wisdow) in the White House and they have continued to FAIL on that point with facts.
And now from National Security Advisor Jim Jones:
“Reports that President Obama has made a decision about Afghanistan are absolutely false,” Jones said in a e-mailed statement today. “Any reports to the contrary are completely untrue and come from uninformed sources.”
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