US President Barack Obama has announced he is sending 30,000 more troops into Afghanistan, vowing to ‘seize the initiative’ to end the war and start a pullout in July 2011.
In a major speech unveiling a new war strategy, Mr Obama pledged for the first time that US forces would start coming home in 19 months.
‘Afghanistan is not lost, but for several years, it has moved backwards,’ Mr Obama said.
The speech, before cadets at the US Military Academy at West Point who will fight Mr Obama's war, marked his biggest test yet as president of the US and the best opportunity to redefine the conflict.
But while he set a date for the start of a US withdrawal, he stopped short of establishing a deadline to complete the mission launched more than eight years ago following the 11 September, 2001 attacks.
‘As commander in chief, I have determined that it is in our vital national interests to send an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan,’ Mr Obama said.
‘After 18 months, our troops will begin to come home,’ he said, seeking to reassure Americans the new plan would not signal a war without end, and rejecting the comparison with Vietnam as a ‘false reading of history.’
The first of the additional US Marines could be in place by Christmas, just four months after war commander General Stanley McChrystal warned the war could be lost without more manpower.
All the new troops will be fighting within six months.
General McChrystal hailed the new strategy, saying it gave him ‘a clear military mission and the resources to accomplish our task.’
‘The clarity, commitment and resolve outlined in the president's address are critical steps toward bringing security to Afghanistan and eliminating terrorist safe havens that threaten regional and global security,’ he said.
Mr Obama also increased pressure on NATO allies for more troops, saying they were also threatened by Afghan-based terrorism.
Following an exhaustive strategy review, Mr Obama rolled out new political approaches to Afghanistan and Pakistan and vowed to chase down al-Qaeda wherever it emerged.
He warned the Afghan government of President Hamid Karzai that the days of a US ‘blank check’ were over, demanding a drive against corruption.
Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, one of Mr Obama’s fiercest critics in the US Congress, praised the new ‘surge of forces’ and said it would help ‘reverse the momentum of the Taliban.’
But others bluntly dissented. ‘I do not support the president’s decision to send additional troops to fight a war in Afghanistan that is no longer in our national security interest,’ said Democratic Senator Russell Feingold.
In Kabul, the Afghan government ‘welcomes the new strategy,’ foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Zahir Faqiri said.
