WASHINGTON -- As the White House began Tuesday to debate in earnest the increasingly unpopular Afghanistan war, NATO's secretary-general said President Barack Obama is right to delay troop decisions until a possibly revamped approach is devised.
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"The first thing is not numbers," Anders Fogh Rasmussen, chief of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, told reporters as he and Obama wrapped up their Oval Office meeting.
Still, Fogh Rasmussen said U.S. and allied troops will remain in Afghanistan "as long as it takes."
The two leaders did not take questions.
Amid dwindling public support for the 8-year-old war, Obama is deciding whether to shift course in Afghanistan. He is torn between ramping up military strength there to try to prevent the Taliban and other extremists from again making the nation a haven for terrorists or turning to a new strategy of focusing mostly on rooting out al-Qaida elements growing stronger in neighboring Pakistan. The latter option would involve mostly unmanned spy planes and special forces units.
Among the recent developments that have scrambled the administration's thinking are the Aug. 20 elections in Afghanistan, marred by claims of ballot stuffing and voter coercion.
Obama is not expected to make the call for some time. But this week marks the launch of his engagement on the topic.
The president meets Wednesday at the White House with Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen, national security adviser Jim Jones, Obama's special envoy for the region, Richard Holbrooke, and others. Those high-level players are meeting without Obama on Tuesday to prepare for Wednesday's discussion.
The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, and his boss, U.S. Central Commander Gen. David Petraeus, also were taking part in both meetings, either by secure videoconference or in person. Wednesday will be Obama's first discussion with his Afghanistan commander since June.
McChrystal recently delivered his on-the-ground assessment of the war and needed changes, including a call for more combat troops. His specific troop request is contained in a separate document, and Sen. John McCain of Arizona, top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, told The Associated Press that both Petraeus and Mullen support it.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs called this week's deliberations "the beginning of a process" and said Obama's final decision is "a number of weeks away." He said Obama's advisers are not yet even at the stage of offering him options to consider.
"We're going to go through the McChrystal assessment and go through additional ideas and go from there," he said. "This isn't going to be finished in one meeting."
Gibbs said McChrystal's resource request won't even be forwarded to the White House until Gates and Obama feel a consensus has been reached on how to move forward strategically. A senior military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter, said that would be at least two weeks.
But McCain, one of the leading GOP senators to call for sending more troops to Afghanistan, said Obama should heed the advice of his top military leaders - and do so immediately.
McChrystal is widely believed to be asking for as many as 40,000 additional troops, and Mullen said in Senate testimony this month that more forces probably will be required to win the war. Petraeus, however, has studiously avoided being drawn into the troops debate while the White House is weighing options.
McCain called Petraeus "totally supportive" of a troop increase. "He and McChrystal worked together on the strategy," McCain said.
Congress has been clamoring for McChrystal to come to Washington and explain his strategy and troop requests directly to lawmakers, but Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman declined Tuesday to say when that might happen. He would only say that McChrystal would testify "at the appropriate time."
Obama didn't mention McChrystal or any specifics about his Afghanistan dilemma when he appeared with Fogh Rasmussen. But the NATO leader said European allies are examining McChrystal's assessment, while understanding that Obama and others have an obligation to think about more than just that.
"I agree with President Obama in his approach: strategy first, then resources," he said. "And don't make any mistake: The normal discussion on the right approach should not be misinterpreted as lack of resolve."
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