DOD Official: "Publicly, the President is backing Petraeus in an aggressive military approach; privately, we sense he is not committed to victory..."

SWOOP/ here

"...... many Democratic representatives will be fighting to protect their own seats rather than to support the President’s agenda. Foreign policy does not provide any relief for Obama. Public support for the Afghan war continues to erode in the wake of rising casualties. In parallel, the appointment of General Petraeus has done little to bridge the substantive differences. Officials hope that Secretary of State Clinton's attendance at the July 20^th UN donor conference in Kabul will allow her to clarify US policy. Reduced to its essentials, the divide is between those who want to ‘defeat’ the Taliban and those who aim at containing the situation sufficiently to allow a US drawdown in 2011. The unknown element is Obama’s own stance.

As one Pentagon officer commented to us: “Publicly, the President is backing Petraeus in an aggressive military approach; privately, we sense that he is not committed to victory.” As yet, Afghan policy has not surfaced as political ‘wedge’ issue. On the Middle East peace process, however, domestic political calculations are pushing the Administration toward a much more supportive commitment to Israel. Overall, foreign policy continues to stand on the sidelines of the Administration’s priorities."