At a pivotal point in the administration's Afghanistan strategy, President Obama and his top Afghan war commander met privately aboard Air Force One Friday for a talk the White House described as productive.
The 25-minute meeting with Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, aboard Air Force One as it waited to carry the president home from Denmark, gave Obama a chance to step outside the circle of advisers he has convened to study the problem of Afghanistan. His war council has been sharing differing opinions on whether the United States should send thousands more troops to tamp down the Taliban, or shift to a narrower focus on al Qaeda in neighboring Pakistan.
The Copenhagen meeting was an extension of those war council sessions "as we reassess and re-evaluate moving forward in Afghanistan," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said afterward.
Obama was in the Danish capital to pitch Chicago's bid to host the 2016 Olympic games, and McChrystal was summoned there from London, where he gave a speech on Thursday warning that insurgents are gaining strength in Afghanistan and the United States needs to increase its efforts there.
At issue is Obama's looming decision on whether to stick with the current mission in Afghanistan - which could require as many as 40,000 additional U.S. troops - or scale back the military option and expand operations against terrorists in Pakistan.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said Friday that McChrystal's troop request is still at the Pentagon and a decision is not imminent. "I don't see anything in the short term. It is exceptionally, closely held," he said.
The president had long been expected to approve McChrystal's plan to mount a military push against the Taliban in Afghanistan. But waning public support for the war and concern about his top commanders' call for more U.S. troops has exposed emerging fault lines inside the White House.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and special Afghan and Pakistan envoy Richard Holbrooke appear to be leaning toward supporting a troop increase, while White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and Gen. James Jones, Obama's national security adviser, appear to be skeptical of troop increases. Vice President Joe Biden also has been reluctant to support sending more troops, favoring a strategy directly aimed at al Qaeda fighters who are believed to be hiding in Pakistan.
The assessment of divisions within Obama's inner circle came from a senior administration official who attended the meeting and spoke on the condition of anonymity, because the discussions were private.