to protect population centers, or one that makes counterterrorism the main focus of U.S. efforts in the country, which would rely on relatively fewer American troops.

…

The timing of Obama’s decision on Afghanistan remains up in the air. But his request for another meeting with the military chiefs " and the expectation that he will meet again with his top national security advisers before reaching a conclusion " may leave him too little time to decide the issue before he travels to Asia on Nov. 11.

I’m afraid that’s just not enough time for him to recognize that he is the President of the United States, that the buck stops with him, that he’ll never make everyone happy, that his current direction is more likely to make no one happy, that extended indecisiveness is its own kind of decision and, in time of war, fundamentally, it gives him enough time to grow a set.

Also that, no matter how he painstakingly he splits it, it’s his baby now.