David Gergen actually said...

"What the president said was, 'No, I'm not going to do that. It's too open ended. The country won't pay a -- spend a trillion dollars in Afghanistan. We're going to have to start pulling the plug.'"

"But very importantly for him and it has emerged now on Capitol Hill, that it looks like the Congress will support him, a majority will support him financially so it will give him permission to go ahea..."

"The public won't sustain, won't support an open-ended war and this worked out to be a logical time to begin the drawdown."

"It's not pleasing anybody. It's got a very small number of people in the middle, but I do think it's -- I don't think it's appropriate to call it the true nation-building."