President Obama has decided to grant Gen. Stanley McChrystal's request for a large and long-term increase in US forces in Afghanistan, according to CBS and AP, which cite "informed sources." The president will give the general almost all the troops he has asked for, boosting the size of the US force in Afghanistan to 100,000 by the end of next year, according to CBS, whose report was firmly denied by the White House.
Obama "has not received final options for his consideration, he has not reviewed those options with his national security team, and he has not made any decisions about resources," said a White House statement. "Any reports to the contrary are completely untrue and come from uninformed sources." Administration officials have signaled that Obama won't announce his decision on Afghanistan strategy until later this month. (More Afghanistan stories.)