Hillary, Gates Pitch Afghan Plan

President Obama dispatched his A-team to the Hill on Wednesday to sell Congress on its new plan to send 30,000 new troops to Afghanistan: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mike Mullen. “Failure in Afghanistan would mean a Taliban takeover of much, if not most of the country,” Gates told the Senate Armed Services Committee. Mullen announced that supplying the extra forces, while there are still soldiers in Iraq, will require a delay in lengthening the amount of time soldiers receive between tours of duty. NATO, meanwhile, pledged to commit at least 5,000 more troops to Afghanistan.