offhand i would think that this gives you the worst of all possible worlds: you dick around and don't really make a decision. it's politically scary to withdraw from afghanistan. it's politically scary to commit the number of troops necessary to do the job. so you spend weeks pro and conning and really come out with no clear approach/strategy/idea of where you're going. i've got a feeling that by the time the bo admin is over that's going to be the kind of story we'll tell: soaring (albeit empty and repetitive) rhetoric and meek actual actions. eugene robinson, among others, has this right.