Legitimacy of Afghan government may delay Obama from committing more US troops

President Barack Obama hasn’t yet decided if he’ll send as many as an extra 40,000 troops into Afghanistan and now it appears concerns over the country’s unstable government could delay his decision.
   
Whit Johnson has the latest this morning from Washington.

President Obama may not be willing to commit thousands of more troops to Afghanistan until the country’s government can prove its legitimacy.

US officials fear Afghan citizens are turning to the Taliban for their needs because of concerns about the country’s leadership. This summer’s presidential election was plagued with charges of fraud raising more doubt about the government’s reliability.

Massachusetts Senator John Kerry visited the region over the weekend and says the President should wait until the election cloud has been lifted.

The Obama administration has held several strategy meetings on afghanistan with more planned this week. The lengthy review which started in September has some Republicans running out of patience.

It isn’t clear whether President Obama will wait for final election results to make his decision . Later today a United Nations fraud panel will announce its verdict of the disputed presidential vote which could help put some of the political uncertainty in the country to rest.