Obama to combine best of Afghan proposals, Gates says - Summary

Washington - US President Barack Obama will try to combine the best elements of the various proposals he is reviewing to plot out a strategy for Afghanistan, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday. Obama is said to be evaluating four different options. While Gates would not discuss details of the several proposals, he said Obama wants to draw from the strengths each brings to the table with regard to any plans for sending more troops to Afghanistan, Gates said.

"I would say it was more, how can we combine some of the best features of several of the options to maximum good effect?" Gates told reporters traveling with him domestically, according to the New York Times. "So there is a little more work to do, but I think were getting toward the end of the process."

The US ambassador to Kabul, Karl Eikenberry, has voiced deep concerns about increasing troop commitments until the Afghan government shows that it can fight corruption, the Washington Post and New York Times reported Thursday.

Eikenberry, a retired general who served as the top commander in Afghanistan for two years, sent two cables in recent days questioning the request by current commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, for 40,000 more troops.

Earlier Wednesday Obama held an eighth meeting in the White House with top aides over the issue but was not expected to make a decision for the next few weeks, at least until he returns from a trip to Asia on November 19.

Eikenberry expressed concerns that more troops would discourage the Afghan government from reforming at a time of widespread allegations of corruption and from taking greater responsibility for security. The White House has expressed similar worries.

"The president believes that we need to make clear to the Afghan government that our commitment is not open-ended," a White House statement said after Wednesday's meeting. "After years of substantial investments by the American people, governance in Afghanistan must improve in a reasonable period of time."

The discussions have left four options for Obama to consider, the White House has said, without specifying the options.

Some advisers have pushed for a large increase in troops similar to the surge in Iraq to counter the growing strength of the Taliban in Afghanistan and a security environment that has sharply deteriorated in the past two years.

According to reports, the various proposals would call for expanding troops ranging from as little as 10,000 to the 40,000 sought by McChrystal. There are currently 68,000 US soldiers in Afghanistan.