This little bit of gold could not be more buried in an otherwise excellent WaPo piece for tomorrow entitled "Obama Shifts the Foreign Policy Debate". But two shockers from the piece:
- Mullen -- the same Joint Chiefs Mullen who made news on Sunday for telling Fox that a timeline is "dangerous" -- told PBS today that he agrees with Obama that Afghanistan is a major problem and the only way to get more troops there is to take them from Iraq.
and
- He said that he has strict priorities from the Commander-in-Chief to focus on Iraq first and foremost. Afghanistan is second.
Passage from WaPo:
The Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, Adm. Mike Mullen, in an interview last night with PBS's "NewsHour," said he shares Obama's assessment that the situation in Afghanistan is "precarious and urgent." The 10,000 additional troops needed there, he said, would not be available "in any significant manner" unless there are withdrawals from Iraq.
For now, he said, "my priorities . . . given to me by the commander in chief are: Focus on Iraq first. It's been that way for some time. Focus on Afghanistan second."