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President Obama headed off to Camp David today with some not-so-light vacation reading. He's carrying a report from the U.S. commander in Afghanistan. It warns that the war is serious and deteriorating. It comes at a time of waning support for the war here at home.
NPR's Scott Horsley has the story on the challenges the president faces in trying to turn the war around.
SCOTT HORSLEY: One of the things that helped candidate Barack Obama stand out from the Democratic primary pack was his longstanding opposition to the war in Iraq. He viewed that war as an unnecessary distraction that was robbing resources from the real battle with those who attacked the U.S. on September 11th. Five months ago, President Obama said it was time to reverse that imbalance. The war in Afghanistan, he said, is one the U.S. has to win.
President BARACK OBAMA: I want the American people to understand that we have a clear and focused goal: to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-Qaida in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and to prevent their return to either country in the future. That's the goal that must be achieved. That is a cause that could not be more just.
HORSLEY: Since taking office, Mr. Obama has committed another 21,000 troops to Afghanistan. And as U.S. forces there have stepped up their fighting, the death toll has increased. Fifty-one U.S. service members were killed in Afghanistan last month, making August the deadliest month since the war began eight years ago.
The rising casualty count has been accompanied by a drop in public support for the war. A survey by McClatchy Newspapers finds a majority of Americans now oppose sending any more combat troops.
Political analyst Jack Pitney of Claremont McKenna College says that's a typical response during drawn out conflicts.
Professor JACK PITNEY (Political Analyst, Claremont McKenna College): If Americans are confronted with a prolonged war with mounting casualties, support tends to drop off. And it's particularly true when the results of the war are not immediately apparent. There's nothing, really, in a physical sense that you can point to in Afghanistan that shows very dramatic invisible progress.
HORSLEY: With its disputed election last month, Afghanistan's also been getting a lot more media attention. And much of what Americans are hearing and seeing is not pretty.
Yesterday, conservative columnist George Will called for a substantial reduction of the U.S. presence in Afghanistan. He called nation-building there impossible and the central government corrupt and ineffective. Will's opposition drew headlines. But the president has seen a bigger erosion in support from the left, the very people who cheered Mr. Obama for his opposition to the war in Iraq.
Last week, Democratic Senator Russ Feingold called for a timetable to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan. If Mr. Obama hopes to fend off that kind of pressure, Pitney says he'll have to keep making the case that U.S. security is at stake.
Prof. PITNEY: It was an easy case to make in 2001, right after the attacks of 9/11. But memories of the attacks have faded. And the president has to remind people the Taliban is still part of a threat to the United States.
HORSLEY: Pitney suggests the president dust off language from the previous administration about the war on terror, which Mr. Obama and his aides have studiously avoided until now.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs did use just that phrase earlier this week, when he called for patience in Afghanistan.
Mr. ROBERT GIBBS (White House Spokesman): You can't under-resource the most important part of our war on terror for five or six or seven years and hope to snap your fingers and have that turn around in just a few months.
HORSLEY: Mindful of the sensitive politics, General McChrystal did not ask for any more troops in his report. But White House officials say a request for thousands of additional troops could be coming within a few weeks.
Scott Horsley, NPR News, the White House.
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