The emerging U.S. strategy would change the tactics of conventional forces on the ground to a less-aggressive strategy aimed at winning support among Afghans, while shifting assets needed to go after terror groups — helicopters, unmanned drones, and other surveillance equipment — from Iraq to Afghanistan to step up the targeting of al-Qaeda-linked militants.

“You can’t do one without the other,” said a military official with recent experience in Afghanistan. “It’s really just a question of which you decide to dial up and which you decide to dial down.”

Don’t really know what that will mean for the troop request, but that already seems very McChrystal-ish. The paper reports that the two scenarios under consideration are for between 10,000 -20,000 troops and for the 40,000-ish plan as well; the smaller increase would be based around ramping up the development of the Afghan security forces and I think is the one the Journal considers to be in the lead, but it’s not clear. Both scenarios appear to be the basis for a recent Pentagon war game. Oh, and there’s another Afghanistan strategy meeting later this morning at the White House.