By Patricia Zengerle
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan has recommended an increase of 40,000 U.S. troops as the minimum necessary to prevail, two sources familiar with his recommendations said on Thursday.
General Stanley McChrystal also gave President Barack Obama an option of sending more than 40,000 troops, the sources said, which could be politically risky given deep doubts among Obama's fellow Democrats about the eight-year-old war.
One of the sources, both of whom spoke on condition that they not be identified because of the sensitivity of talking about recommendations to the president, said McChrystal also gave a third high-risk option of sending no more troops.
The sources spoke as a heated debate played out in Washington over whether to send more soldiers to Afghanistan to try to put down the Taliban insurgency or to scale back the U.S. mission and focus on striking al Qaeda cells.
"The president has always evaluated our policy, as I said here yesterday, based on those that pose a direct threat to attack our homeland or to attack our allies," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said. "Included in that group are any that would provide safe haven for those activities."
As Obama deliberates about the U.S. future in Afghanistan -- one of the issues expected to define his presidency at home and abroad -- troops there are facing the worst violence of the war, as Taliban insurgents have extended fighting to previously secure areas, including Kabul, where attacks were once rare.
On Thursday, 17 people died and 76 were wounded in the capital's centre when a large bomb exploded outside the Indian Embassy. The attack was the latest in a series of militant attacks on diplomatic and government buildings in Kabul.
WAIT-AND-SEE FOR ALLIES
A senior U.S. defence official acknowledged the U.S. debate had left European governments in a wait-and-see position as they decide whether to vote for additional resources for Afghanistan.
"And I think that in the meantime they have their own domestic issues and in each individual country, those countries that have suffered high casualties will have to deal with some who are arguing the cost of this war isn't worth it," said Alexander Vershbow, assistant secretary of defence for International Security Affairs.
Vershbow said that while generally there was a determination among allies to stay the course in Afghanistan and contribute troops, "the capacity of allies to increase substantially is limited."
Obama spoke to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Thursday on issues including the situation in Pakistan and Afghanistan, Gibbs said.
Obama has been criticized as being too cautious and lacking resolve, as he reviews his administration's six-month-old Afghan strategy. He received the request for more troops from U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates a week ago and has held a series of strategy reviews as he determines how to proceed.
Several lawmakers leaving a briefing with national security adviser General Jim Jones said Jones indicated McChrystal would give a presentation to Obama on Friday.
"The whole plan, he (Jones) said, is being presented tomorrow. They have a three- or four-hour session tomorrow. ... That will include the president and others, from the way I understood it," the lawmaker said, not indicating whether it would be done in person or via videoconference.
Aides insist Obama is acting pragmatically, and say his consensus-building is the antidote to the style of his Republican predecessor, George W. Bush, who was criticized for making major policy decisions based on limited or faulty information and then refusing to change course.
"He's making good progress. ... He's asking the appropriate questions, he's getting the information and he is working with his national security team," Obama's senior adviser, David Axelrod, told Reuters.
(Additional reporting by Susan Cornwell, Matt Spetalnick and Phil Stewart in Washington and Yousuf Azimy in Kabul; Editing by Peter Cooney)
