Yesterday, CBS News reported that President Obama had finally reached a decision and would order a 40,000 troop surge to Afghanistan.

And though I was writing a piece critical of the President and his apparent indecision, as an American I was thankful and put “Surge Afghanistan Now” on the back burner in preparation for deletion.

…And then at 9:57 PM last night the White House came out and vehemently denied the report.

In fact, it appears that a final decision by President Obama is as far away as it ever has been:

“Reports that President Obama has made a decision about Afghanistan are absolutely false. He 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. Any reports to the contrary are completely untrue and come from uninformed sources.” [Emphasis added]

And so, now that it has been confirmed by the White House that the President has not even been briefed on military strategies to further secure a deteriorating situation in Afghanistan, I present to you the original piece, “Surge Afghanistan Now”:

The invaluable lessons learned mere months ago when an initiative led by President George W. Bush sent a “surge” of 20,000 U.S. troops overseas to fortify Baghdad and the Anbar Province in Iraq in 2007 are already being ignored by the Obama Administration at the cost of American lives and perhaps the entirety of Operation Enduring Freedom.

The situation in Afghanistan is growing more dire by the day.

2009 has been the deadliest year for American and Allied forces, who are facing increased resistance from remnants of the Taliban regime, Al-Qaeda sympathizers and other radicals who would die to have Afghanistan plummet backward into darkness.

Perhaps for the first time in eight years is the forceful removal of the Taliban regime and reconstruction of the nation of Afghanistan considered to be in serious jeopardy.

President Obama’s indecisiveness and hesitation are indicative of one of two possible causes or motivations:

One, his lack of experience and knowledge in the realm of foreign policy — a quip largely dismissed or ignored by his supporters during the 2008 election season — is hampering American efforts to secure Afghanistan; or,

Two, the indisputable results and subsequent lessons from the Iraq surge are being outwardly ignored on the basis of partisan stubbornness, because further fortifying and securing the Afghanistan theatre would be in blatant contradiction to Obama’s campaign platform of bringing American troops home, and with immediacy.

Defenders of the President will contest that the delay is a reluctance to make a rash decision and that the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan requires deep consideration by way of his sage-like wisdom.

While partisanship will not contest the value and merit in sound decision-making, the indisputable evidence of success of a calculated troop “surge” to problematic areas in a foreign theatre, as with Iraq and as recently as two years ago (!), portrays the President’s delay as great cause for concern.

This issue is less one of politics and more one of leadership: decisiveness is absolutely vital and its opposite is an invitation to America’s enemies to conduct foreign meddling, button-pushing, and other such tests that put the lives of innocent men and women on the line.

While President Obama will, in all likelihood, agree to submit a surge of troops to Afghanistan by the spring of 2010, his reluctance to make an important decision in the realm of foreign policy is gravely disconcerting and will certainly be taken note of by the likes of Iran and other enemies of freedom who now realize that with President Obama and important foreign policy crises, that time is on their sides.