According to President Obama's chief spokesman, the president will be making his decision regarding how many troops will be sent to Afghanistan, and when. However, President Obama is refusing to be rushed into his decision, which surprised officials at the Pentagon. This is an early sign that the president will be more independent than military leaders had expected. Officials had predicted that Obama would be making his decision within days, but they found themselves still waiting on an answer. I think that this is a wise move in the long run, because major decisions like this should not be rushed into and made hastily. The President is better off thinking about the situation until he feels he has reached his best decision.
Obama's pace in making a decision is contradictory of what George W. Bush had done with regards to requests for troops. Former President Bush had usually been quick to sign requests for additional troops, and he rarely engaged in lengthy conversations on the issue. The exception to this was his reluctance to the surge of troops into Iraq in 2006 and 2007. Overall, President Obama seems to be doing a better job with weighing the consequences than Bush did. John Nagl, president of the Center for a New American Security and a retired Army officer said, "I'm personally hopeful that President Obama will do something that President Bush didn't do particularly well, I think he's thinking through the implications of committing troops, not just the first order but the second and third order effects." The request for troops has evolved into a greater thing, it is now a discussion about goals and methods in Afghanistan. The Pentagon has asked for a study that would examine the risks of sending additional troops to Afghanistan.
I don't think that this story has an obvious slant to it, because it seems very informative. It just focuses on the issue at hand and the conflict that is surrounding it. However it might be seen as liberal because it has quotes of opinions of people who support Obama's delayed decision, but otherwise it is unbiased.
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