Emphasizing the need to provide the strategy and resources he said had been lacking since the United States went into Afghanistan, Obama claimed his war plan will provide what's needed to succeed and bring the U.S. mission there to an end.
Obama conceded that his strategy will have a profound impact on its most immediate audience: thousands of Army officers in training at the U.S. Military Academy who will be called on to carry it out.
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, who accompanied the president to West Point for last night's televised address, last visited the academy in May to deliver the commencement address to the Class of 2009. Those 970 graduates, all now second lieutenants, have since moved on to officer basic training school, and will probably see action in Afghanistan within the coming months.
Gates praised the graduating members of the "Long Gray Line" for volunteering to serve their country when it needs them most, despite the risks. "You made your decision to serve knowing not only that America was at war – as did every man or woman who joined the military after September 11th -- but that this war would be bloody and difficult, of indefinite length and uncertain outcome," he told them. "In doing so, you showed courage, commitment, and patriotism of the highest order."
“I would think he would want to reinforce some of his forces in the east and the south where the main effort by the Taliban and associated forces have been,” the official said of McChrystal. “But it’s up to him, based on the types of troops he has and where he needs them first and how he’s going to use them.”
Though violence has risen across the board in recent years in Afghanistan, the bloodshed is most intense in the country’s east and south, which have seen more than a two-fold increase in the use of improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, Pentagon spokesman Army Lt. Col. Mark Wright said.
Two U.S. Army brigade combat teams, or BCTs, each with about 3,500 to 4,000 soldiers, are operating in Regional Command South -- one of five regional commands in Afghanistan comprising international forces under NATO leadership.
The 2nd Infantry Division’s 5th Stryker BCT of Fort Lewis, Wash., operates in eastern and northern Kandahar province and western Zabul province, and the 82nd Airborne Division’s 4th BCT of Fort Bragg, N.C., performs advisory roles and training in the region.
Attacks involving IEDs -- the No. 1 killer of U.S. forces in Afghanistan -- is especially rampant in the south, Wright said.
“The Strykers have met a lot of resistance in the Kandahar province,” he said of the 5th Stryker BCT, which employs eight-wheeled armored combat vehicles. “Around [Kandahar] city and out farther into the countryside, there have been a lot of IEDs. They’ve suffered some really significant casualties.”
The Institute for the Study of War, a think-tank headed by Kimberly Kagan, a member of McChrystal’s assessment team, cites the Taliban under Mullah Mohammed Omar as the main threat to stability in southern Afghanistan.
"In the east, it's been pretty much a constant fight," said Wright, citing a large battle in the area's Nuristan province in October, where some 18 months earlier a battle raged for control of the Wanat district. "The same province has seen some fairly significant combat in significant numbers – hundreds of Taliban gathered and launching attacks against [U.S.] forces. So it's a pretty intense, ongoing fight there."
Obama's announcement of details last night were not surprising as was the reaction to his speech. His supporters claim he has articulated a "clear plan to fight terrorists and their supporters."
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Comments
"However, Obama stated that only 30,000 more troops would be deployed, far fewer than the 60,000 originally requested by General Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, or the 40,000 many expected as a compromise."
Well, not actually. What BHO has done is provided 30k of the 40k McChrystal asked for, and asked NATO to provide another 10k. As far as BHO is concerned, "an action passed is an action completed". He will blame others when NATO falls short, as they have already said they will do.
His setting of an arbitrary and public timeline; however, is his most significant error, yielding the initiative to the Taliban by allowing them to set the pace of the war.
Obama is Bush lite. Period. Obama talked about how Bush got his eyes off of the real issue (Iraq) when Bush should have been focused on Afghanistan, but Obama never talked about ramping the war in Afghanistan to where it is now. There are now more troops in Iraq and Afghanistan than there was when Bush was president - even before those additional 30,000 show up.
Iraq is now at the point where we can leave, but Obama is dragging his feet on bringing them home. They will be there way past when he said that he would bring them home. Obama lied about ending indefinite detention. Obama lied about ending warrantless wiretapping. He actually now defends indefinite detention and he expanded the use of warrantless wiretapping.
Olbermann, Maddow and Matthews (and the rest of the MSM) don't care and neither do their fellow kool-aid drinkers. They whine a little, but not much. Not enough - that is for sure.
Far better than a timeline would have been measurable benchmarks that would be used to pace an eventual withdrawal. Setting a deadline for removing troops is like a creditor saying if you don't pay the bill by such and such a date he's going to blow it off. If that's the case, why pay? Just wait him out. More soldiers and Marines will die because of this lunacy.
OBAMA LIED in his campaign speech!
""Commanders in Afghanistan repeatedly asked for support to deal with the reemergence of the Taliban, but these reinforcements did not arrive."
That is a LIE and he knows it. Bush gave the commanders all the troops they asked for!
Joe Wilson was RIGHT! Obummer is a pathological LIAR!
Yo, Obama, what's with the "uncertain outcome" !?
That's no way for a Commander in Chief to rally the troops.
no war to win, only opium to steal, no pullout scheduled.
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