WASHINGTON -- President Obama is weighing an expected request for more U.S. troops against concerns that an expanded American
presence could be perceived by Afghan civilians as an occupation army and not a liberating force battling a determined and
bloody Taliban resurgence.
As the president took a newly finished review of military strategy in Afghanistan with
him to Camp David on Wednesday as he continues a vacation break, a senior administration official declined to say how Obama
is leaning on whether to boost American forces above the troops he ordered deployed earlier this year.
