Afghanistan Troop Surge: A Primer

2 years ago

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President Obama on Tuesday night unveiled his Afghanistan strategy, adding 30,000 troops by next summer with an exit strategy to start getting U.S. forces out in 2011. Obama White House staffers have been conducting briefings during the day -- on the record and on background about the surge.

"If the Taliban thinks they can wait us out, I think that they're misjudging the president's approach," an official said.
Here's an overview:

The takeaway: The U.S. does not have an open-ended commitment in Afghanistan.

The goal: "To disrupt, dismantle and eventually defeat al-Qaida and to prevent their return to either Afghanistan or Pakistan," a senior administration official said.

U.S. troop buildup: There are 68,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan plus some 40,000 soldiers from NATO forces and other countries. The 30,000 additional U.S. troops will be deployed as fast as possible. When Obama took office there were 32,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan. This will be Obama's third Afghanistan troop increase.

Estimated deployment of new troops: The first part of 2010.
Estimated start of withdrawal of troops: July 2011. The pace of return will determined by conditions on the ground.

NATO Afghanistan troop buildup: NATO officials meet in Brussels on Thursday and Friday and are expected to agree to send more NATO troops to Afghanistan.

What the troops will be doing: Degrade the Taliban, develop the Afghanistan army and police to the point that U.S. forces can hand off security responsibility to the Afghans at a future date, deliberately left vague for now.

The top economic development priority in Afghanistan: Agriculture, because that offers "the best promise for quickest results in terms of our economic assistance," an official said.

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