Mike Allen is reporting this at Politico.
President Barack Obama’s strategy for Afghanistan will include a plan for "how we’re going to get folks out" after a secure environment can be passed to the Afghan government, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters aboard Air Force One on Thursday.
"We have been there for eight years. And we’re not going to be there forever," Gibbs said. "It’s important to fully examine not just how we’re going to get folks in, but how we’re going to get folks out."
Gibbs spoke en route to Alaska, where the president stopped at an Air Force base in Anchorage before traveling on to Tokyo for his maiden Asia trip, which will take him to Japan, Singapore, China and South Korea.
This has been an incredibly long process with a lot of leaks,a fact Sec. Gates addressed today.
"I have been appalled by the amount of leaking that has been going on in this process,’’ Mr. Gates told reporters en route to a Wisconsin factory that is churning out thousands of armored trucks manufactured specifically for the rough terrain of Afghanistan.
"I think a lot of different places are leaking," he said. "I’m confident that the Department of Defense is one of them.To have details or options that are being considered out there in the middle of the president’s deliberative process I think does not serve the country and it does not serve our military.’’
I personally think there has been a concentrated effort to push the President to escalating this war. If he does decide to introduce a time line like in Iraq I can not imagine the firestorm that will emerge.
Especially given that 2010 is an election year.
This is good news, I'm hopeful we will get an exit plan in place with this new strategy. That accounts for the lengthy deliberations.