Obama Facing Doubts Within His Own Party on Afghanistan

From the New York Times:

The leading Senate Democrat on military matters said Thursday that he was against sending more American combat troops to Afghanistan until the United States speeded up the training and equipping of more Afghan security forces.

The comments by the senator, Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat who is the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, illustrate the growing skepticism President Obama is facing in his own party as the White House decides whether to commit more deeply to a war that has begun losing public support, even as American commanders acknowledge that the situation on the ground has deteriorated.

Mr. Levin said he was not ruling out sending more troops eventually, but rather insisted that the United States try again on a years-old project: finding a way to expand and accelerate the training of the Afghan security forces.

[Defense Secretary Robert M.] has indicated that he is willing to consider a request for more forces.

[I note that this was not the inclination of Mr. Gates back in May or so of this year. He said it would be very difficult to convince him to increase the number of troops we have. He did not want us to be seen as an occupier as was the case with the Soviets in the 1980s when the former Soviet Union had 110,000 troops stationed in Afghanistan (and still lost).]