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 The Beginning Of A Process For Making Some Eventual Determinations - White House Press Briefing by Robert Gibbs 9/28/09 — Monday, September 28, 2009 —  Q Robert, a couple of topics, first Afghanistan. Tomorrow you guys are having a meeting -- the President is meeting with the Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, General Petraeus obviously on Afghanistan. Is that where he's going to at least lay out a timetable for making his strategy review decision, sort of saying --MR. GIBBS: No, I think I'll leave it at it's a number of weeks. Q Can you lay out a little bit of -- is tomorrow's agenda just hearing ideas? Is the President going to be talking? I mean, what is -- can you give a little more description? MR. GIBBS: We're not going to have a meeting to set a meeting agenda. We're going through the process of assessing where we are, what's changed, what needs to happen, where we need to go. This isn't going to be finished in one meeting, it's not going to be finished in several meetings; it's not going to be finished in several meetings. But this is the beginning of a process for making some eventual determinations -- understanding that, as we've said before, the President came into office, he asked that our policy be reviewed; in late March, in the lead up to elections the President requested 21,000 additional troops be sent to Afghanistan. The end of that number is beginning to get to Afghanistan now. But I think, again, as you heard Secretary Gates say over the weekend, in that time period we've had an election that has thus far been inconclusive and the United States does not pre-determine who that winner might be. And secondly, Secretary Gates said that the assessment of conditions on the ground were worse than previously assumed. Q So citing the -- the President cited the election, the uncertainty surrounding the election, can you do -- can you fully carry out or at least roll out a new strategy before there's certainty? MR. GIBBS: Well, that's one of the things that's going to be discussed over the course of the next several weeks. Q Is this a change you might wait to see -- MR. GIBBS: I'm not going to get into hypotheticals about what may or may not. I think that's what the meetings are for. Afghanistan | Defense Secretary Robert Gates | Military | President Obama | Press Briefing | Robert Gibbs | War on Terror | White House Press Corps Labels: Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Military, President Obama, Press Briefing, Robert Gibbs, War on Terror, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 7:39:00 PM
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