US sending 34,000 troops to 'finish the job' in Afghanistan
Obama set to outline a new strategy for region
Wednesday November 25 2009
Barack Obama will say that the United States is sending 34,000 extra troops to Afghanistan to "finish the job", in a move that will end three months of deliberation.
White House officials said the President would address Americans next Tuesday in a live prime-time broadcast and outline a new strategy for ending the Afghan war, which began when US forces ousted the Taliban after the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001.
Senior figures such as Robert Gates, the defence secretary, General Stanley McChrystal, commander of Nato forces in Afghanistan, and Karl Eikenberry, the US ambassador to Kabul, are then expected to give evidence before Congress about the reasons for the increase.
Mr Obama's long consultation process has at times vexed his supporters in the US and abroad. He faced a growing chorus of criticism, accusations of "dithering" and claims that he was allowing the Afghan situation to deteriorate.
White House officials insisted, however, that he was engaged in a process of serious deliberation that would prevent him from repeating the mistakes of his predecessor George W Bush. Mr Obama told a press conference with Manmohan Singh, the Indian prime minister, yesterday: "After eight years, some of those years in which we did not have, I think, either the resources or the strategy to get the job done, it is my intention to finish the job.
"It is in our strategic interests, in our national security interest, to make sure that al-Qaeda and its extremist allies cannot operate effectively in those areas. We are going to dismantle and degrade their capabilities, and ultimately dismantle and destroy their networks."
Although Mr Obama declined to talk about numbers, defence officials were told to draw up plans to send 34,000 extra troops. Mr Obama is also expected to announce an increase in civilian presence and to outline an "exit strategy" involving handing over military authority to the Afghan government. There are 68,000 American troops in Afghanistan. In a document first seen by Mr Obama on September 2, General McChrystal requested about 40,000 more as part of a detailed analysis that was leaked to The Washington Post three weeks later.
Deployment
Defence plans, according to the McClatchy publishing group, involve the deployment of three army brigades from the Marine Corps, the 101st Airborne Division and the 10th Mountain Division for nine months starting next March.
This would account for 23,000 new troops. In addition, a 7,000-strong divisional headquarters would be set up to assume command of US-led Nato forces in southern Afghanistan, which include the 9,000 British troops in Helmand province and the 500 more on standby to be sent there. Mr Obama convened a group of senior officials, including Vice-President Joe Biden, Mr Gates, and Hillary Clinton, the Secretary of State, for a "war council" meeting on Monday. It was the ninth and final such gathering during the 90 days Mr Obama has spent mulling over General McChrystal's request.
"The delay is not cost-free," Dick Cheney, vice-president under Mr Bush, told Scott Hennen, a conservative TV host. "Every day that goes by raises doubts in the minds of our friends in the region about what you're going to do, raises doubts in the minds of the troops."
Robert Gibbs, Mr Obama's press secretary, said: "This is a complicated decision.
"I think the American people want the President to take the time to get this decision right, rather than to make a hasty decision."
Two veteran Democratic members of Congress have called for a "war tax" to pay for a troop increase. The proposals received a cool reception at the White House. (© The Daily Telegraph, London)
- Toby Harnden
Irish Independent
