SEOUL, South Korea — President Barack Obama said Wednesday that he was still weeks away from deciding how many more U.S. troops to send to Afghanistan and that he would like to fire officials who had leaked details of his deliberations to the news media.
“We have deliberations in the situation room for a reason; we’re making life-and-death decisions that affect how our troops are able to operate in a theater of war. For people to be releasing info in the course of deliberations is not appropriate,” Obama told CBS in an interview from China before he headed to Seoul as the last stop in a week-long trip to Asia.
Obama said the leaks were “absolutely” a firing offense, but he didn’t say whether he would try to find out who had leaked and didn’t differentiate among those who may have leaked from the White House, the Pentagon or other agencies.
Obama stressed anew that U.S. strategy depends on the Afghan government winning the support of its people.
“We have a vital interest in making sure that Afghanistan is sufficiently stable, that it can’t infect the entire region with violent extremism,” Obama told CNN. “We also have to make sure that we’ve got an effective partner in Afghanistan, and that’s something that we are examining very closely and presenting some very clear benchmarks for the Afghan government.”
As he spoke, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton broke off from the presidential entourage and headed to Afghanistan to attend the inauguration of President Hamid Karzai to his second term in office.
Under intense pressure to fix his corrupt government, Kar zai sought to strike a balance in his inaugural speech today: Answer international demands for reform while appeasing his political allies.
He begins a second term facing an increasingly violent insurgency, an administration crippled by corruption, high unemployment and an impoverished population frustrated by eight years of war and few improvements to daily life.
An official familiar with a draft of the speech said Karzai would not pepper his address with rhetoric criticizing the international community. Still, Karzai is likely to wag his finger at foreign donors for allowing millions to be skimmed from aid contracts before Afghans ever see the assistance.
Clinton said the U.S. does not have a long-term military stake in Afghanistan.
“We’re not seeking to occupy Afghanistan for the undetermined future,” she said. “We don’t want bases in Afghanistan.”
In the capital, Kabul, security was tight, bracing for a possible attack by insurgents wishing to disrupt the inauguration.
The event is attracting dignitaries from about 40 countries, including Asif Ali Zardari, president of neighboring Pakistan.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
