A day after vigorously denying reports that he plans on sending 40,000 troops to Afghanistan, President Obama is considering sending between 30,000 and 35,000 new troops, including up to 10,000 military trainers, The Wall Street Journal reports. A senior military official tells The Journal that this plan—the fourth and newest of the options Obama is considering—is drawing the “most consideration” at the Pentagon, and Obama is expected to announce his decision shortly after returning from Asia on November 19. The New York Times reports that Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen have coalesced around a proposal for 30,000 or more troops, but that Obama “remains unsatisfied with answers he has gotten about how vigorously the governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan would help execute a new strategy.”
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