POLITICS: PRES. OBAMA VISITS PENTAGON

On Wednesday, President Obama and Vice President Biden met with Sec. of Defense Robert Gates and the Joint Chiefs of Staff to get what the White House called a “comprehensive view of the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan and the impact on our forces”.

The administration plans to decrease troop deployment in Iraq and focus on the fight against the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan. Gates wants to put Obama “in front of all the people that are involved in these decisions and all the people that are involved in committing the lives of men and women in our uniform so that the president can get all this advice in an unvarnished way,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.