WASHINGTON (Reuters) – US President Barack Obama vowed yesterday to “finish the job” of an unpopular and costly eight-year war in Afghanistan, and officials said he could announce an increase of around 30,000 troops next week.
Obama said he would soon end weeks of intense speculation about his plans for the way forward in Afghanistan, after a three-month strategic review that has drawn fire from Republican critics who accuse him of dithering.
“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,” Obama said at a news conference with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
“I will be making an announcement to the American people about how we intend to move forward. I will be doing so shortly,” he said.
Obama would not be drawn on specifics, but he is expected to unveil his troop decision on December 1, and several US media outlets said it would be in a prime-time television address.
With the US deficit hitting $1.4 trillion, and the White House estimating it will cost $1 million per year for each additional soldier sent to Afghanistan, increasing troop numbers could be a politically risky move for Obama.
He will have to convince Americans, already deeply worried about rising levels of government spending and weary after years of conflict, that Afghanistan is a necessary war or risk punishment in mid-term congressional elections due in 2010.
Afghanistan expert Bruce Riedel, who led the Obama administration’s first review of the Afghan war in March, said he did not expect fundamental changes in the US strategy.
This lack of a big shift could be problematic for the president, he said. “People may ask why it took three months for him to come up with something that is not very new.”
Influential voices in Obama’s national security cabinet, including Defense Secretary Robert Gates and military chiefs, favour a US troop increase of 30,000-plus, officials said. The final number could reach 35,000 once US trainers are factored in, but estimates on the number of trainers vary widely.
There are about 110,000 foreign troops, including 68,000 US soldiers, in Afghanistan fighting the Taliban. War spending in Afghanistan has more than doubled over the last year and reached $6.7 billion in June alone.
Obama has been reviewing war strategy since General Stanley McChrystal, the top US commander in Afghanistan, said in a report in September that conditions were deteriorating and 40,000 additional troops were needed to quell the insurgency.
The president stressed that civilian and diplomatic efforts would be key to his strategy and said he would discuss the responsibilities of other nations and Afghanistan itself when laying it out.
“One of the things I’m going to be discussing is the obligations of our international partners,” he said.
