Administration officials say the United States needs to make sure it has a credible partner in the Afghan government before any change in strategy.

VOA: standard.2009.10.21

Morrell said the review does not mean that the counterinsurgency approach is over, but rather that U.S.officials want to make sure their strategy is right before committing significant numbers of additional troops.

VOA: standard.2009.09.23

The prime minister said crucial to that strategy is building up Afghan local and national government institutions and practices to make sure Afghan President Hamid Karzai is able to tackle some major issues.

VOA: standard.2009.11.13

"I have actually led the way I saying that we are prepared to make the additional troops available for the Afghanistan strategy so we are able to show people that we have a strategy for the time ahead as well,"

VOA: standard.2009.11.10

What we've done is refocused. We are refocused on 'why are we there?' And we've rearticulated our core objectives and our core interests in a more defined strategy for how do we actually turn the tide and begin to make progress.

VOA: standard.2009.03.27