Lynn Sweet

Afghanistan Troop Surge: A Primer

Posted:

12/1/09

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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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Lynn Sweet

Lynn Sweet is a columnist at PoliticsDaily.com and writes the Daily FLOTUS blog on Michelle Obama. She is also Washington Bureau Chief of the Chicago Sun-Times.... more

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Captain John

8:43PM Dec 1st 2009

Obama should read the novel I just finished. Third Party Candidate, by author John L. Dupuis, gives us a futuristic look at what American will look like in 2012 and forward. A chilling novel about the gastly intent of Islamic extremist....

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BOstinks

9:19PM Dec 1st 2009

Honestly,I hate to even say it,but after listening to his speech about4 mins. in,I realized there was no verve or swagger or anything even remotely PUMPED UP in his voice and I went back to him giving a speech about the s.e.i.u. and his years of involvement with them and there was DRIVE and a sense of accomplishment when he spoke.
These are our KIDS fighting for us,they deserve a,"WE GOT YOUR BACK"attitude and nothing less!

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S Rogers

9:39PM Dec 1st 2009

I am sure Al Qaeda/Taliban were greatly comforted by this speech, hang on for a little while longer and America will be gone. Joe the goat herder is thinking that he would have to be crazy on his own opium dusted hash to be affiliated with interlopers who only want to cut and run as soon as possible. Great message to our military, lets sound the trumpet of battle half way. You either fight to win or you pick up and go home. sitting on the fence does not cut it in a war. To the military, this is an example of ham and eggs. It represents a minor commitment by the chicken (Obama), it represents the ultimate commitment by the pig(military personnel)

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gvpal52

12:55AM Dec 2nd 2009

Obama says that Al Quaeda has distorted Islam? Does he mean unlike the Iranians? or the head choppers that we took out in Iraq, or maybe like Hesbola or Humass? Just the Al Quaeda guys I guess?. He wants to befriend the good Taliban guys? OK show me one that will let his wife do the talking or let his daughter go to school. Narrow minded view of radical Islam in my opinion. Sorry I can't spell most of those foreign names but you get what I mean.

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garry402

8:47AM Dec 2nd 2009

I wish Obama was more like William Barret Travis and draw a line in the sand and declare "Victory or Death".

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