Clinton, Gates, Mullen to testify on Afghanistan strategy next week

The secretaries of State and Defense as well as the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff will appear before the House Foreign Affairs Committee next Wednesday to answer questions about the White House's new Afghanistan strategy.

The hearing will take place just a day after President Barack Obama announces his much-anticipated plan -- which is expected to include a troop increase of about 34,000 -- in a prime time, televised address.

Presumably, Wednesday's congressional hearing will be the first of many in which administration officials will field tough questions about the president's new approach to the nine-year war.

What they say will matter greatly, as Congress must ultimately decide whether to implement the president's plan as designed -- a question that hinges on a related tug of war over how to pay for a new round of troop deployments.

So far, only Secretaries Hillary Clinton and Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen have been summoned to offer their input. Neither Gen. Stanley McChrystal nor Ambassador Karl W. Eikenberry has been scheduled to offer similar testimony.

However, White House officials have reportedly told both key mission leaders to prepare for lawmakers' questions in advance, as support for the president's plan in Congress will depend quite greatly on both officials' remarks.