War on Terror

Obama Buys Time in Afghanistan

Doesn't think surge will win war.

Barack Obama might be planning to send up to 30,000 more troops into Afghanistan but he doesn't anticipate that changing the direction of the deteriorating conflict, The Washington Post reports. Rather, the administration expects the doubling of forces in Afghanistan to help it buy time to reevaluate the entire war and develop a new comprehensive strategy. "We have no strategic plan. We never had one," says one senior military commander. The military is also looking to Obama to answer long standing questions about war: Should it conduct conventional combat or targeted guerilla war? Don't look for many answers before a NATO summit in France this April. The administration's got a few other things on its agenda to address first.