President Obama said in a taped interview that military officials should know by the end of December 2010 whether a strategy to secure population centers in Afghanistan is meeting its objectives.

“If the approach that’s been recommended doesn’t work, we’re going to be changing approaches,” Mr. Obama said in the interview that aired on CBS’s “60 Minutes” Sunday night.
The interview was conducted last week at the White House, before the president traveled to Europe to accept the Nobel Peace Prize on Thursday. Much of the interview focused on Mr. Obama’s decision to send an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan.
Under Mr. Obama’s strategy, the additional 30,000 troops he added to forces in Afghanistan would begin withdrawing in July 2011 as part of a transition phase.
Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top American military commander in Afghanistan, has suggested that the United States wants the new forces to blunt the Taliban’s recent momentum and to buy time to train Afghan soldiers and police officers to take over security duties.
Mr. Obama said that he had set the 2011 deadline to put Afghan officials on notice that the United States does not intend to carry the entire burden of securing the nation.
“That’s not what the American people signed off for when they went into Afghanistan in 2001,” Mr. Obama said. “They signed up to go after Al Qaeda.”
Mr. Obama also said that the United States would need more cooperation from Pakistan in pursuing Al Qaeda because tribal territories that straddle the border along Afghanistan and Pakistan harbor enemy fighters.
The interview came as Mr. Obama approached his first anniversary in the White House and some of the public’s enthusiasm for his agenda has waned. Ever since Mr. Obama took office, critics of his leadership style have accused him of tackling too many initiatives at once. Recently, his approval rating in some polls has dwindled to 50 percent or below.
(Source: New York Times)