The Ambassador from Indecision

The Washington Post provides a closer look at the advice from the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan which fed into Obama's decision not to decide (which does, to be sure, mean that he still has made a choice) exactly what we will or won't be doing in the short-term when it comes to troops in Afghanistan:

The U.S. ambassador in Kabul sent two classified cables to Washington in the past week expressing deep concerns about sending more U.S. troops to Afghanistan until President Hamid Karzai's government demonstrates that it is willing to tackle the corruption and mismanagement that has fueled the Taliban's rise, senior U.S. officials said….

After a top-level meeting on the issue Wednesday afternoon…the White House issued a statement that appeared to reflect [ambassador Karl] Eikenberry's concerns.

"The President believes that we need to make clear to the Afghan government that our commitment is not open-ended," the statement said. "After years of substantial investments by the American people, governance in Afghanistan must improve in a reasonable period of time."

Here's to non-open-ended commitments, to war or nation building or whatever it is that's going on over there.