Military Strategy

President Obama and his top advisors on Friday began dealing in White House meetings with the task of deciding whether to send additional troops to Afghanistan. The president and his team pored over a report from the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, who warns that having too few troops could be fatal to the mission, but that extra military personnel do not guarantee success. The four-hour meeting, on the day when Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, produced no clear decision, and the military and civilian advisors plan to continue talks next week.

As the Obama administration debates whether to shift its aims in Afghanistan, officials at the Pentagon and National Security Council have begun developing "middle path" strategies that would require fewer troops than their ground commander is seeking. Measures under consideration include closer cooperation with local tribal chiefs and regional warlords, using CIA agents as intermediaries and cash payments as incentives, said current and former officials who described the strategies on condition of anonymity.

The Obama administration's debate over Afghanistan is illuminating differences within a national security team previously known for conducting business behind closed doors with little fuss or dissent. In five White House sessions, military leaders intent on getting more firepower have been seated beside civilian officials fearful of political fallout from an escalation of the war. Key players have hedged on questions of strategy and troop levels. There have been signs of a compromise that would tell allies that the United States remains committed to Afghanistan while reassuring Americans that the goals are limited.

The Pentagon plans to dramatically increase the surveillance capabilities of its most advanced unmanned aircraft next year, adding so many video feeds that a drone which now stares down at a single house or vehicle could keep constant watch on nearly everything that moves within an area of 1.5 square miles. The year after that, the capability will double to 3 square miles. Military officials predict that the impact on counter-terrorism operations in Afghanistan will be impressive.

President Obama and his war council today plan to review four basic strategy options for Afghanistan that could increase the number of U.S. troops there by as many as 40,000 or fewer than 10,000. The White House insisted Tuesday that Obama has not decided how many additional troops to send or how he will deploy them, though the White House has narrowed the options to those outlined by his national security team, the Pentagon and Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top U.S. and allied commander in Afghanistan.

President Obama shifted his focus to Pakistan on Wednesday as his advisors dug more deeply into their reassessment of U.S. strategy for neighboring Afghanistan and approached the question of whether to further increase troop strength there. Eight years to the day after the Afghanistan war began, the president was reviewing a recommendation from his commander there, Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, that suggests a range of troop increases depending on the strategy chosen. White House officials say Obama is weeks away from a decision.

U.S. commanders have begun shifting the mission of military forces in Iraq by moving more American troops out of front-line combat and into assignments that allow soldiers to monitor and support Iraqi units, senior military leaders said Thursday. In their changing capacity, U.S. troops increasingly will be positioned to back up Iraqi forces in a role that commanders outlined in recommendations in September and have termed "overwatch." Under the recommendations, the overall U.S.

If Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates had his way, the protracted presidential nomination battles underway in the Republican and Democratic parties would end sooner rather than later. "Once somebody contemplates the prospect that they may be president of the United States, they're going to begin thinking about what they're going to inherit," Gates said in an interview. "And I think it will be, regardless of party, a sobering realization."

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Friday that no decision had been made to stop the withdrawal of troops in Iraq this summer, a subtle rebuke of the top U.S. commander there, who suggested that reductions would pause after the current round of cuts was completed in July. The comments underscore the divergent views among top Defense Department officials over the long-term troop commitment to Iraq.

As the most powerful Afghan official in the troubled southern province of Kandahar, Ahmed Wali Karzai says he knows just how to tame the shadowy Taliban campaign of suicide bombs and assassinations that have raised the specter of a country sliding toward anarchy. He wants more American soldiers on the ground.