http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96719141
a version of this report was broadcast on Morning Edition
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President-elect Barack Obama will soon inherit twin national security crises: two stubborn wars.
Whomever Obama taps to run the Pentagon will be burdened with finding a way out of Iraq and crafting a way to ease the fighting in Afghanistan. There's much speculation on who will lead the Pentagon next year and carry out those policies.
Iraq
Obama forged his campaign around his opposition to the Iraq war and turning over security to Iraqi forces.
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But can the incoming administration remove U.S. troops from Iraq that quickly?
Anthony Cordesman, a defense analyst with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, says that although violence is down in Iraq, Obama may find it hard to withdraw American troops in large numbers given that the security situation is still so uncertain.
"And no one can predict at this point in time exactly what's going to happen with internal civil conflict in Iraq or that al-Qaida will be fully defeated or reduced to such a low level of operations that Iraq can operate on its own," says Cordesman.
He says Obama can withdraw American forces but maybe not as many as he promised his supporters.
Obama could find himself in political peril by removing too many U.S. troops, says Michael O'Hanlon of the Brookings Institution.
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