The Washington Post cited unnamed senior administration officials and leading lawmakers in the report, saying these members of the administration initially pressed for an approach that emphasized the targeted killing of insurgent leaders, rather than the broader, troop-heavy counterinsurgency strategy.
These officials, the Post said, intend to argue in upcoming debates that the al-Qaeda leader's demise is proof that counterterrorism is a more reliable and cost-effective tactic for the next phase of the nearly decade-old war.
President Barack Obama has already delcared that the withdrawal of American troops form Afghanistan will begin in July this year.
Even before the death of bin Laden, the confluence of the national debt crisis, the 2012 election, and events on the ground had bolstered arguments that the administration's plans to remake Afghanistan's government and economy went too far beyond the goal of safeguarding US security.
Current expenditures of $10 billion a month are fundamentally unsustainable and the administration urgently needs to clarify both its mission and exit plan, Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) said Tuesday.
According to the report, a senior administration official involved in Afghanistan policy insisted that there will be no re-litigation of the strategy that has brought 30,000 more US troops and hundreds of additional US diplomats to the war zone since early last year.
"We're on a clear path set by the president," the official said. The killing of bin Laden may have a significant effect going forward on the setting of milestones and the pace and slope of the US troop withdrawal scheduled to take place between July and the end of 2014, the official said.
Administration officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal thinking, emphasized that Obama and his national security team have not begun discussions on the withdrawal nor has the military made a recommendation.
In the 10 days since bin Laden's death, many legislators have called for the United States to speed its withdrawal from Afghanistan, beginning with Obama's planned drawdown of an unspecified number of troops this summer.
The US-led coalition, with a current total of about 140,000 troops, two-thirds of them American, has pledged a complete combat withdrawal by 2014.
According to The New York Times, President Obama will soon begin considering plans for making good on his pledge to begin withdrawing American troops from Afghanistan in July. Gen. David Petraeus, the senior commander in Afghanistan, is expected to submit his options soon for carrying out Obama's order.
On Tuesday, the commander of American and allied forces across the violent, contested provinces of eastern Afghanistan said that the death of bin Laden might weaken the syndicate of insurgent groups battling the Kabul government, although it may take months to determine which might seek reconciliation and which will seek revenge.
The commander, Maj. Gen. John F. Campbell, said during a video news conference to the Pentagon from his headquarters at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan that the death of Al Qaeda's founder might splinter historic ties between Al Qaeda and indigenous insurgent leaders who helped protect it.
The insurgency is made up of a number of groups with different motivations, different goals and different relationships with Al Qaeda. The organizations may still be digesting the news of bin Laden's death before deciding on a course of action.