President Barack Obama's confusion over Afghanistan

Last week, we thought we knew what Barack Obama's Afghanistan strategy was; today, we do not have much of a clue.

His out-of-the-blue musings in his Sunday morning TV interviews that "until I'm satisfied we've got the right strategy, I'm not going to be sending some young man or woman over there", indicated an alarming funk at the White House. That it coincided with the leak of his Afghan commander General Stanley McChrystal's assessment, that without significant reinforcements the campaign "will likely result in failure", only adds to the sense of disarray. On the US's most pressing foreign-policy issue, there appears to be a divergence between the political and military leaderships.

Just a few months ago, President Obama was fruitlessly beseeching his Nato allies to show greater commitment to the Afghan mission. Now, it seems, his own commitment is wavering. More