Obama to Announce Afghan Strategy Tuesday at West Point

2 years ago

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President Obama will deliver a speech about the direction of America's eight-year war in Afghanistan at 8 p.m. Tuesday at the U.S. Military Academy, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs announced Wednesday. While Obama is expected to announce a troop increase, Gibbs also indicated a strategy will be announced to ultimately get U.S. troops out of a country they have been fighting in since 2001.

"The president does not see this as an open-ended engagement," Gibbs said.

Addressing the nation's future Army officers at West Point affords the commander-in-chief the opportunity to speak directly to the men and women tasked with carrying out an increasingly dangerous policy that has been losing public support back home.

The president has mulled his options for a new strategy in Afghanistan since his top commander there, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, earlier this fall called for a 40,000-troop increase. Reports have been circulating that Obama will order 25,000 to 30,000 additional U.S. troops, and call upon NATO allies to add 10,000 more.

Noting that the cost of keeping a soldier in Afghanistan is approaching $1 million a year, the president's spokesman reminded reporters Wednesday that Obama has previously stated: "We are not going to be there forever. It is unsustainable."

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