Shields, Brooks: Obama Risks Looking Petty in Fox Fight

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• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  And to the analysis of Shields and Brooks. That's syndicated columnist Mark Shields and "New York Times" columnist David Brooks.

  Gentlemen, thank you both for being here.

  We just heard on Afghanistan Rory Stewart talking to Margaret Warner about what to do. Today, the NATO ministers, David, sounding supportive. The — the defense secretary, Bob Gates, is saying the U.S. is committed to Afghanistan.

  Who is your sense of where the president is headed?

• DAVID BROOKS:

  Well, I think they're going to decide within two or three weeks. That seems to be the time frame.

  And my understanding of the conversation is, it's partly a talk — a decision about troops, whether it's an other — whether to keep where we are or go up to even 80,000 or, more likely, 40,000 or some less.

  But it's mostly a discussion of strategy. Can you do it by controlling the cities and not actually trying to control the countryside? Do you have to control swathes of the countryside? So, it's a much more — it's a much more nuanced fight than the fight troops or not more troops. It's, how exactly we can do it?

  I think the commitment to being there and making sure the Taliban doesn't take over seems to me unquestioned. In some sense, the debate inside the White House does not reflect the debate outside, which is, we should really scale down. I think that's not an option. And the fact that the NATO ministers signed onto this COIN strategy, this McChrystal, even underlines that more.

  We are not getting out of Afghanistan.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  Is it your sense, Mark, that — what is your sense in terms of how the White House is going about doing this?

• MARK SHIELDS:

  I think, Judy, that, obviously, we saw an important step this week in — with the White House, the administration, as they move to make a final decision on how many troops, is — was John Kerry's mission, and where the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, former presidential nominee made it clear that — to President Karzai that he had essentially three options, the first of which was to have another election, to legitimize his own administration, at least electorally, or, two, to have the coalition government bring in his opponent, or, three, that the United States — that he would probably have safe conduct someplace else, that, in fact, support for this would erode in the Congress, financial support, economic support.

  So, I think that was an important first step, or a necessary step. The irony is that, as this decision is made, the weather is turning to the point where combat becomes less and less likely or fruitful. I mean, it's going to be frozen. Logistically, it becomes difficult to move around the country.

  The winter turns against them. So, even getting troops in and getting the support in is going to be a difficult and time-consuming task, when the decision is finally made.