Official: Obama Wants New Afghan Options

Updated at 7:23 a.m. Eastern.

President Obama does not plan to accept any of the Afghanistan war options presented by his national security team, pushing instead for revisions to clarify how and when U.S. troops would turn over responsibility to the Afghan government, a senior administration official said Wednesday.

That stance comes in the midst of forceful reservations about a possible troop buildup from the U.S. ambassador in Afghanistan, Karl Eikenberry, according to a second top administration official.

In strongly worded classified cables to Washington, Eikenberry said he had misgivings about sending in new troops while there are still so many questions about the leadership of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, the official told the AP.

A U.S. official, speaking to CBS News on condition of anonymity, said Thursday morning that, "parts of what's being reported are inaccurate." The official would not give any details on what those alleged inaccuracies were, and the U.S. Embassy in Kabul refused any comment.

Source: U.S. Ambassador Objects to Afghan Surge

"The timelines and mounting questions about the credibility of the Afghan government" are the key sticking points in Mr. Obama's mind, a senior administration official told CBS News White House correspondent Mark Knoller.

CBS News correspondent Nancy Cordes reports that U.S. officials have suggested the President's decision to delay a firm commitment on troop levels in Afghanistan may have been influenced in part by Eikenberry's concerns.

CBSNews.com Special Report: Afghanistan

Mr. Obama is still close to announcing his revamped war strategy - most likely shortly after he returns from a trip to Asia that ends on Nov. 19.

The official told CBS News that President Obama raised questions during his war council meeting Wednesday that could, "alter the dynamic of both how many additional troops are sent to Afghanistan, and what the timeline would be for their presence in the war zone."

The president is considering options that include adding 30,000 or more U.S. forces to take on the Taliban in key areas of Afghanistan and to buy time for the Afghan government's small and ill-equipped fighting forces to take over. The other three options on the table are ranges of troop increases, from a relatively small addition of forces to the roughly 40,000 that the top U.S. general in Afghanistan prefers, according to military and other officials.

CBS News political analyst John Dickerson told "Early Show" co-anchor Harry Smith Thursday that President Obama is worried, as is his ambassador in Kabul, that there has been little indication from President Karzai's government, since he was declared winner of a tainted election, that corruption will be tackled in a serious way.

Their concern, says Dickerson, is that more troops are sent, but significant changes aren't made to bring Karzai's government domestic credibility, the U.S. will be left with no viable partner in the war-torn country.

Administration officials said Wednesday that Mr. Obama wants to make it clear that the U.S. commitment in Afghanistan is not open-ended. The war is now in its ninth year and is claiming U.S. lives at a record pace as military leaders say the Taliban has the upper hand in many parts of the country.

Eikenberry, the top U.S. envoy to Kabul, is a prominent voice among those advising Obama, and his sharp dissent is sure to affect the equation. He retired from the Army this year to become one of the few generals in American history to switch directly from soldier to diplomat, and he himself is a recent, former commander of U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

Eikenberry's cables raise deep concern about the viability of the Karzai government, according to a senior U.S. official familiar with them who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the classified documents. Other administration officials raised the same misgivings in describing Obama's hesitancy to accept any of the options before him in their current form.

The options presented to Obama by his war council will now be amended.

Military officials say one approach is a compromise battle plan that would add 30,000 or more U.S. forces atop a record 68,000 in the country now. They described it as "half and half," meaning half fighting and half training and holding ground so the Afghans can regroup.

The White House says Obama has not made a final choice, though military and other officials have said he appears near to approving a slightly smaller increase than the war commander, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, wants at the outset.

Among the options for Obama would be ways to phase in additional troops, perhaps eventually equaling McChrystal's full request, based on security or other conditions in Afghanistan and in response to pending decisions on troops levels by some U.S. allies fighting in Afghanistan.

The White House has chafed under criticism from Republicans and some outside critics that Obama is dragging his feet to make a decision.

Mr. Obama's top military advisers have said they are comfortable with the pace of the process, and senior military officials have pointed out that the president still has time since no additional forces could begin flowing into Afghanistan until early next year.

Under the scenario featuring about 30,000 more troops, that number most likely would be assembled from three Army brigades and a Marine Corps contingent, plus a new headquarters operation that would be staffed by 7,000 or more troops, a senior military official said. There would be a heavy emphasis on the training of Afghan forces, and the reinforcements Obama sends could include thousands of U.S. military trainers.

Another official stressed that Mr. Obama is considering a range of possibilities for the military expansion and that his eventual decision will cover changes in U.S. approach beyond the addition of troops. The stepped-up training and partnership operation with Afghan forces would be part of that effort, the official said, although expansion of a better-trained Afghan force long has been part of the U.S objective and the key to an eventual U.S. and allied exit from the country.

With the Taliban-led insurgency expanding in size and ability, U.S. military strategy already has shifted to focus on heading off the fighters and protecting Afghan civilians. The evolving U.S. policy, already remapped early in Obama's tenure, increasingly acknowledges that the insurgency can be blunted but not defeated outright by force.