Giles Whittell in Washington
December 1, 2009
President Obama will announce today the deployment of an extra 34,000 American troops to Afghanistan, according to sources briefed since the President issued new orders to his military commanders.
The figure, reported last night by The Washington Post, was close to previous estimates and will take the total US troop strength in Afghanistan to more than 100,000.
With an additional 5,000 reinforcements from other Nato countries, the long-awaited “surge” will consist of close to 40,000 soldiers – the number requested by General Stanley McChrystal, the Nato commander in Afghanistan.
The extra US troops are expected to start arriving in the south and east of the country in January, with orders to dislodge the Taleban from strongholds in Helmand Province, where they have defied British forces for years.
US Marines and soldiers from the army’s 101st Airborne Division and the 10th Mountain Division are also expected to surround Kandahar, Afghanistan’s second city, in an effort to cut off Taleban units operating there in open defiance of the regime of President Hamid Karzai.
President Obama would not go into detail in his speech at West Point military academy on how his $30 billion (£18 billion)escalation of the eight-year Afghan war will be paid for, his spokesman said, but he would offer American voters an exit strategy and set out clear tests of progress in the fight against corruption that Mr Karzai must pass to be sure of continued US support.
The scale of the surge will bring the total number of troops sent to Afghanistan by Mr Obama to 55,000. It will propel his presidency into a new phase in which responsibility for American success or failure will be his alone, however much he may be tempted to blame his predecessor for neglecting the Afghan conflict in favour of a war of choice in Iraq.
In the months it has taken Mr Obama to settle on a new Afghan strategy the White House has rejected a series of media estimates of the number of new troops it would involve, often blaming Pentagon sources for leaking them. The figure of 34,000 is the first to emerge since a series of high-level meetings over the past 36 hours in which the President briefed his commanders, his cabinet, and the leaders of Britain, France, Australia and Russia.
He will outline the new strategy to 31 invited Congressional Democrats and Republicans this afternoon, before flying to West Point in New York state to address the nation at 8pm, East Coast time.
Congressional hearings on the future of US-led operations in Afghanistan will begin on Wednesday and continue into next week, when General McChrystal and General Karl Eikenberry, the US Ambassador to Kabul, are expected to testify.
The differences between Mr Eikenberry’s preferred strategy and General McChrystal’s were exposed two weeks ago when two of Mr Eikenberry’s cables to Washington were leaked. Both urged the President to veto any reinforcements because of the fragility and corruption of the Karzai regime.
General McChrystal has argued that the only way to deny al-Qaeda a safe haven in Afghanistan is to root out the entire Taleban insurgency. He will now have his chance. If he fails, American prestige will suffer immeasurably. Whatever happens, casualties on both sides will rise and a president elected partly for his opposition to one war will be defined by his escalation of another.
The figure, reported last night by The Washington Post, was close to previous estimates and will take the total US troop strength in Afghanistan to more than 100,000.
With an additional 5,000 reinforcements from other Nato countries, the long-awaited “surge” will consist of close to 40,000 soldiers – the number requested by General Stanley McChrystal, the Nato commander in Afghanistan.
The extra US troops are expected to start arriving in the south and east of the country in January, with orders to dislodge the Taleban from strongholds in Helmand Province, where they have defied British forces for years.
US Marines and soldiers from the army’s 101st Airborne Division and the 10th Mountain Division are also expected to surround Kandahar, Afghanistan’s second city, in an effort to cut off Taleban units operating there in open defiance of the regime of President Hamid Karzai.
President Obama would not go into detail in his speech at West Point military academy on how his $30 billion (£18 billion)escalation of the eight-year Afghan war will be paid for, his spokesman said, but he would offer American voters an exit strategy and set out clear tests of progress in the fight against corruption that Mr Karzai must pass to be sure of continued US support.
The scale of the surge will bring the total number of troops sent to Afghanistan by Mr Obama to 55,000. It will propel his presidency into a new phase in which responsibility for American success or failure will be his alone, however much he may be tempted to blame his predecessor for neglecting the Afghan conflict in favour of a war of choice in Iraq.
In the months it has taken Mr Obama to settle on a new Afghan strategy the White House has rejected a series of media estimates of the number of new troops it would involve, often blaming Pentagon sources for leaking them. The figure of 34,000 is the first to emerge since a series of high-level meetings over the past 36 hours in which the President briefed his commanders, his cabinet, and the leaders of Britain, France, Australia and Russia.
He will outline the new strategy to 31 invited Congressional Democrats and Republicans this afternoon, before flying to West Point in New York state to address the nation at 8pm, East Coast time.
Congressional hearings on the future of US-led operations in Afghanistan will begin on Wednesday and continue into next week, when General McChrystal and General Karl Eikenberry, the US Ambassador to Kabul, are expected to testify.
The differences between Mr Eikenberry’s preferred strategy and General McChrystal’s were exposed two weeks ago when two of Mr Eikenberry’s cables to Washington were leaked. Both urged the President to veto any reinforcements because of the fragility and corruption of the Karzai regime.
General McChrystal has argued that the only way to deny al-Qaeda a safe haven in Afghanistan is to root out the entire Taleban insurgency. He will now have his chance. If he fails, American prestige will suffer immeasurably. Whatever happens, casualties on both sides will rise and a president elected partly for his opposition to one war will be defined by his escalation of another.
Times Online
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