LIKE W, BUT WITHOUT CONVICTION:

U.S. Opts for Limited Surge (JONATHAN WEISMAN and PETER SPIEGEL, 12/01/09, Wall Street Journal)

President Barack Obama has ordered a revamped war plan for Afghanistan that appears to endorse the military strategy of his top generals but will set limits on U.S. involvement in terms of duration, manpower and money, White House officials said Monday.[...]

Aides familiar with the new policy insist that Mr. Obama hasn't ended up where he started his review, planning for an an open-ended escalation. He will lay out benchmarks for the U.S. and Afghan governments to meet on the recruitment and training of Afghan security forces, as well as on rooting out corruption that has bedeviled the country.

Mr. Obama isn't expected to set a firm date for completion of the Afghan mission, as the U.S. has in Iraq, where the American withdrawal is now governed by a treaty. At the same time, a White House official said Mr. Obama would lay out specific goals for the new troops, time frames for achieving those goals and an explicit pathway toward ending the war.

A senior White House official said the speech Tuesday won't be primarily about escalating the war in Afghanistan, but about ending it.

If you hamstring yourself are you surging?

Posted by Orrin Judd at December 1, 2009 6:40 AM