Mullen: Obama has time to make decision on Afghanistan troops

Adm. Mike Mullen, America's top military officer, said Wednesday that he is comfortable with the length of time it is taking for the White House to come to a decision on the way forward in Afghanistan. In a brief interview on Capitol Hill with The Monitor, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said he feels good about the "depth of the discussion." Critics on Capitol Hill and beyond have said Mr. Obama is taking too long to decide whether he will send as many as 40,000 more troops to Afghanistan. Former Vice President Dick Cheney called it "reckless," and House minority leader John Boehner of Ohio said Obama has "no further pretext for delaying the decision" now that Afghanistan's election crisis has been solved. Democrat Rep. Ike Skelton, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, has also urged Obama "to waste no time."