CHEYENNE -- President Obama needs to decide soon on the future of U.S. policy in Afghanistan regardless of whether that means sending more troops to the country, keeping troop numbers the same or scaling back, Rep. Cynthia Lummis said Monday.

Lummis, R-Wyo., said she supports sending more troops. In the meantime, she said, the lack of a plan is putting American troops in harm's way.

"What I'm asking the president to do is make whatever conclusion that he feels is appropriate," she told The Associated Press. "It is, in fact, indecision that is causing us more harm."

Obama and his advisers have been debating whether the U.S. should pursue al-Qaida separately from the Taliban in Afghanistan. The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, wants an additional 10,000 to 80,000 troops for a counterinsurgency campaign against the Taliban.

Vice President Joe Biden advocates keeping troop numbers steady and going after al-Qaida with targeted strikes using special forces and unmanned aircraft.

Lummis was among 15 freshman congressmen who wrote Obama last month in support of McChrystal's recommendations on Afghanistan. Lummis said she's attended numerous briefings on Afghanistan over the past two weeks.

They included a recent meeting in the office of Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., who called on the administration last month to hurry and implement an Afghanistan policy.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are very different, Lummis said, because Iraq's central government has been able to impose rule of law locally. In Afghanistan, she said, the Taliban has been doing that and many Afghans view the order of the Taliban as better than no order at all.

"That's why the Taliban can come in and settle into a tribal community," she said.

Another Wyoming Republican, former Vice President Dick Cheney, said last week that the Obama administration is "dithering" in Afghanistan. Administration officials have said that what to do in Afghanistan is a more complex question than whether to send more troops.