DAVID GREGORY: Let me ask you about another important issue facing you and your administration, and that is Afghanistan. We've now been in Afghanistan for eight years. The Soviets pulled out of Afghanistan after ten years. Are we committed to this war for an indefinite period of time? Or do you think, in your mind, is there a deadline for withdrawal?

PRESIDENT OBAMA: I don't have a deadline for withdrawal. But I'm certainly not somebody who believes in indefinite occupations of other countries. Keep in mind what happened when I came in. We had been adrift, I think, when it came to our Afghanistan strategy. And what I said was that we are going to do a top to bottom review of what's taking place there.

Not just a one time review, but we're gonna do a review before the election in Afghanistan, and then we're gonna do another review after the election. And we are gonna see how this is fitting what, I think, is our core goal. Which is to go after the folks who killed the 3,000 Americans during 9/11, and who are still plotting to kill us, al Qaeda. How do we dismantle them, disrupt them, destroy them?

Now, getting our strategy right in Afghanistan and in Pakistan are both important elements of that. But that's our goal. And I want to stay focused on that. And- and so, right now, what's happened is that we've had an election in Afghanistan. It did not go as smoothly as I think we would have hoped. And there are some serious issues in terms of how that- how the election was conducted in some parts of the country. But we've had that election. We now finally have the 21,000 troops in place that I had already ordered to go.

DAVID GREGORY: Are you skeptical about more troops? About sending more troops?

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, can I just say this? I am- I have to exercise skepticism anytime I send a single young man or woman in uniform into harm's way. Because I'm the one who's answerable to their parents if they don't come home. So I have to ask some very hard questions anytime I send our troops in.

The question that I'm asking right now is to our military, to General McChrystal, to General Petraeus, to all our national security apparatus, is- whether it's troops who are already there, or any troop request in the future, how does this advance America's national security interests? How does it make sure that al Qaeda and its extremist allies cannot attack the United States homeland, our allies, our troops who are based in Europe?

That's the question that I'm constantly asking because that's the primary threat that we went there to deal with. And if- if supporting the Afghan national government, and building capacity for their army, and securing certain provinces advances that strategy, then we'll move forward.

But, if it doesn't, then I'm not interested in just being in Afghanistan for the sake of being in Afghanistan or saving face or, in some way- you know, sending a message that America- is here for- for the duration. I think it's important that we match strategy to resources.

What I'm not also gonna do, though, is put the resource question before the strategy question. Until I'm satisfied that we've got the right strategy I'm not gonna be sending some young man or woman over there- beyond what we already have.

I think it important to respond to the President that if the goal is to dismantle Al-Qaeda's capabilities, then that does not require the occupation of Afghanistan with over 60,000 troops. Furthermore, Al Qaeda militants have now spread out of South Asia back towards Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Somalia. Are we then to pursue Al Qaeda militants in these countries by stationing troops?

In Somalia, al Qaeda has developed strong ties over the past year to al Shabaab, a militant group that has waged war against a wobbly and ineffective secular government. Al Shabaab controls the entire southern part of Somalia including Kismayo imposing a brutal regime based Sharia law. Al Qaeda also has invested resources in recruiting young children to train for suicide missions in Somalia as well as using young Somali men to fight against US troops along the Afghan-Pakistani border. In fact, al Qaeda is stepping up its recruitment of fighters across the African Sahel.

One week ago, a US commando raid in Somalia killed Saleh Ali Nabhan, an Al Qaeda operative who was suspected of orchestrating the 1998 attacks on the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam and the 2002 bombing of a Mombassa resort. A US intelligence report claims that Ali Nabhan ran training camps in Somalia for foreign fighters, including some Americans of Somali descent. Some of the graduates of these terror camps have been tied to attacks and threats around the globe, the report states. In response to the killing of Saleh Ali Nabhan, al-Shabaab attacked an OAU peace-keeping force killing 21. The situation in Somalia promises to get worse before that country finds any stability.

Meanwhile across the Gulf of Aden, Al Qaeda in Yemen and Saudi Arabia merged into a single organization earlier this year, calling itself Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, based in Yemen. The group has taken advantage of tribal and religious affiliations to establish safe havens in rugged and largely ungoverned tribal regions that have been difficult for US intelligence to penetrate. Yemeni al Qaeda leader Abu Basir Nasser Al-Wahaishi reportedly has recruited many young foot soldiers over the past year, exploiting Yemen's considerable economic and political problems. It should be noted that the Houthi rebellion in Yemen has the potential of becoming a wider civil war and may already be a proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia. The Houthi are an oppressed Shi'a minority that live in Yemen on the border with Saudi Arabia. Recent reports suggest that Al Qaeda fighters are helping the Yemeni government repress the rebellion.

As my good friend Steve Hynd asks over at Newshooggers dude, where's my strategy? The President would do well to articulate one and stick to it. Otherwise we are just pissing American blood in the wind.The full transcript of the President's appearance on Meet the Press is available at Real Clear Politics.