President Obama met for nearly two hours with top national security aides Tuesday to give final approval to a year-end review of his war strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan before a summary of the assessment is publicly released Thursday, The Washington Post reports.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the results will "not surprise" anyone following the issue; he said that the review "will show that our transition can and should begin . . . in July 2011," when Obama has pledged to begin a conditions-based drawdown of what are now 100,000 U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

The withdrawal of both U.S. and NATO combat forces is to be completed by the end of 2014.

An administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity about the largely classified document, described it as "diagnostic" rather than "prescriptive," outlining areas in which goals are being met as well as those where "things aren't working so well." The assessment is designed to set the agenda for decision-making in the spring, the official said.


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