Obama studies Afghan options

WASHINGTON -- The Afghanistan war reached its once-unthinkable eighth anniversary Wednesday as President Barack Obama, seeking a revamped strategy for the increasingly unpopular conflict, focused more closely with his war council on neighboring Pakistan's role in the fight against al-Qaida.

The White House also revealed that Obama has had in hand, for nearly a week, the troop request prepared by the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal. It is said to include a range of options, from adding as few as 10,000 additional combat troops to -- McChrystal's strong preference -- as many as 40,000.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Obama asked for McChrystal's request last Thursday, before he flew to Copenhagen to lobby for Chicago's bid to host the 2016 Olympics. The numbers could become the focus of concentrated White House attention as soon as Friday, Gibbs said.

When former President George W. Bush launched the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan less than a month after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the country's Taliban government was providing safe haven for Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida terrorists. Eight years later, the Taliban regime is no more, and al-Qaida is scattered and weakened. But the Afghan government is considered corrupt and ineffective, Taliban insurgents are gaining strength and terrorists continue to plan attacks.

This uncertain progress has come at a cost of nearly 800 U.S. lives.

With this and Americans' dwindling patience in mind, Obama is engaged in a methodical review of how to overhaul the war.

Wednesday's nearly three-hour meeting in the Situation Room among Obama and more than a dozen of his top advisers on the war was the third of five currently scheduled. The next is Friday, concentrating on Afghanistan. The final discussion is slated for next week, though aides have said more could come.

Gibbs said Obama's decision is still weeks away.

Wednesday's focus on Pakistan, the suspected hiding place of bin Laden and other al-Qaida terrorists as well as Taliban leaders, could provide a hint into the president's leanings.

Obama and some of his key aides are increasingly pointing to recent successes against al-Qaida through targeted missile strikes and raids in Pakistan but also in Somalia and elsewhere around the world. Obama said Tuesday that al-Qaida has "lost operational capacity" as a result.

Also, serious doubts about the Afghan government that only deepened with the questionable Aug. 20 presidential election make a true counterinsurgency mission there difficult. Intense poverty and other troubles in the "graveyard of empires" make it an even more complicated pursuit.

In Pakistan, though, the government has shown new willingness to battle extremists, with most believed to be operating from the largely ungoverned terrain along the border with Afghanistan. But these operations, as well as the strikes by unmanned U.S. aircraft, continue to stoke controversy throughout the country, causing problems for the already weak civilian government.

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