So we all know now that Obama will be sending 30,000 troops into Afghanistan and that about 18 months later, in the summer of 2011, he will begin bringing them back to the U.S.

After months of deliberation and interviews with various advisors, Obama came to the decision just last week, and I, for one, was curious about how he actually made the decision- the New York Times came through with an answer.

“I want this pushed to the left,” Obama apparently told advisers when they showed him a bell curve of troops going in and coming back. Imagine it being that basic- but why shouldn’t it be.

It sounds like Obama is motivated by some very human thoughts and understandings about the nature of war and the present situation- the human toll weighs on him, and I appreciated knowing that he has said, ““I don’t want to be going to Walter Reed for another eight years,” meaning he doesn’t want to be visiting wounded soldiers at the end of his second term (yea for the implied optimism!). On the other side, he very much wants us to get in and out of there, not in an irresponsible seek and destroy and bail kind of way, but in a take control, shock and awe- like approach, and then move to the business of training someone else, as in the Afghan military, to take over and handle the situation themselves.

One of the military advisers described Obama as somewhere “between a college professor and a gentle cross-examiner.” Now that’s the kind of guy I want in charge of my country. And I disagree with much of the press the war receives, when people are calling it Obama’s war, because while he supports it and sees it now as a “war of necessity,” he is not the one who started this war, nor is he the cause of the war. It almost feels like the media is trying to paint Afghanistan as the Civil War and Obama as Lincoln- or maybe that’s too far.

Lincoln made a whole lot of decisions, doing exactly what he had to do and often breaking both the law and the peace, moving on his own understandings making quick decisions- Obama is a lengthy debater who encourages other opinions…

“The president welcomed a full range of opinions and invited contrary points of view. And I thought it was a very healthy experience because people took him up on it. And one thing we didn’t want — to have a decision made and then have somebody say, ‘Oh, by the way.’ No, come forward now or forever hold your peace,” said Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said.

I recommend learning more about how Obama came to the decision and how the White House functions…

It’s fascinating to see that the way decisions are made about wars halfway around the world is very similar to how decisions about what to have for dinner are made in my kitchen at home- everybody makes their case, then the acknowledged head of decision-making considers everything and lays out a plan to forge forward.

May it go as you wish, President Obama.