The White House braced for a tough sell of President Barack Obama’s long awaited decision on whether to commit tens of thousands of new US forces to the stalemate war in Afghanistan.  Military officials and others expect Obama to settle on a middle-ground option that would deploy an eventual 32,000 to 35,000 US forces to the 8 year old conflict.

The rough figure has stood as the most likely option since before Obama’s last large war council meeting earlier this month. He tasked military planners with rearranging the timing and makeup of some of the deployment.