Obama 'very close' to Afghan troop decision

President Barack Obama revealed on Wednesday he was "very close" to making and announcing his decision about troop levels in Afghanistan.

The president expects to announce that new strategy "in the next several weeks," he told CNN in an interview aired this morning.

Obama also stressed in a separate interview on NBC that intends "to present to the American people in very clear terms what exactly is at stake, what we intend to do, how we're going to succeed, how much it's going to cost, how long it's going to take" -- perhaps a hint that he might announce his new strategy in an address to Congress or in prime time.

"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."

The decision about troop levels in Afghanistan has spanned many weeks and meetings -- a period throughout which Republicans have carped the president is dithering.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs previously said Obama had narrowed his strategy options to only four, but questions about the credibility of Afghan President Hamid Karzai's newly re-elected regime sent advisers back to the drawing board.

That concern seemed evident in Obama's interview, and he acknowledged widespread corruption in Karzai's government was a "factor that [has] gone into the decision making,"

"I think that President Karzai has served his country in important ways," the president then cautioned, though he did not say directly whether or not he trusted Karzai's leadership. "If you think about when he first came in, there may not have been another figure who could have held that country together."

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