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President Obama's troop increase in Afghanistan is being closely watched by many Americans, though pollsters have detected a strong isolationist sentiment, with nearly half of all Americans saying the United States should "mind its own business."

Vision and dental benefits might be cut back by employers if the Senate Democrats' so-called "Cadillac tax" on high-cost benefits is passed, according to a new survey.

Correspondent Susan Stamberg gathers recommendations for the season's best books from booksellers Rona Brinlee, Daniel Goldin and Lucia Silva. Their selections include comics about philosophy, novels about building families, and a box set that dives into the process of writing.

Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, spent Wednesday pitching President Obama's revised Afghan strategy to his troops and Afghan officials. McChrystal acknowledged it's going to take more than words to persuade Afghans that Obama's new strategy can bring peace.

The Obama administration went to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to sell its new Afghanistan policy to lawmakers. At the witness table before Senate and House committees: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Michael Mullen.

The White House bristles at even the suggestion that Afghanistan is another Vietnam. In his speech Tuesday, President Obama listed the differences between the two conflicts. Gordon Goldstein, author of Lessons in Disaster: McGeorge Bundy and the Path to War in Vietnam, says though some of the distinctions that Obama made were fair, there are strategic parallels between the two conflicts.

President Obama said Tuesday success in Afghanistan "was inextricably linked" to Pakistan. Adil Najam, professor of international relations at Boston University and the founding editor of the blog Pakistaniat: All Things Pakistan, says events in Afghanistan have an almost-immediate impact in neighboring Pakistan.

Republicans had accused President Obama of dithering rather than deciding how things should go in Afghanistan. The president took three months and convened many top-level meetings to consider strategy and troop levels. While there is support for the increased troop level, they do not think Obama should have set a timetable for withdrawing.

President Obama outlines his strategy for Afghanistan at a speech at West Point on Tuesday. Obama will likely face a skeptical audience; support for the war is in decline. Ambassador Wendy Sherman, special adviser to President Clinton, and Michael Gerson, chief speechwriter to President George W. Bush, offer their insight.

Police are searching a Seattle neighborhood Monday for the suspect in the shooting deaths of four police officers from a Tacoma, Wash., suburb. Earlier, a SWAT team stormed a house in the area where Maurice Clemmons was thought to be hiding, but he had already escaped.