Afghan Strategy Decision Expected ‘Within Days’

A White House spokesman said Tuesday that President Barack Obama plans to reveal his decision on whether to send more U.S. troops to Afghanistan “within days” after holding a late-evening meeting with his top foreign policy and military advisers.

“After completing a rigorous final meeting, President Obama has the information he wants and needs to make his decision and he will announce that decision within days,” said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, according to news agencies.

Media reports indicate that President Obama’s announcement is expected to come in a televised address on Dec. 1.

A critical question revolves around how many more U.S. forces will be sent to fight the resurgent Taliban and train Afghan forces. There are now 68,000 American troops and 42,000 allied forces in Afghanistan.

Military officials and others expect the president to settle on a middle-ground option that would send up to 35,000 additional U.S. forces to the 8-year-old conflict, reported the Associated Press.

Monday night’s strategy session was Mr. Obama’s 10th since mid-September. No more war council meetings are on the calendar.

The president said in a television interview last week: “At the end of this process, I’m going to be able to present to the American people in very clear terms what exactly is at stake, what we intend to do, how we’re going to succeed, how much it’s going to cost, how long it’s going to take.”

Congressional hearings would immediately follow that address, including testimony from the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, and others such as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry, according to the AP.

McChrystal has presented options ranging from about 10,000 to about 80,000 forces, and told Obama he preferred an addition of about 40,000 troops, officials have said.

President Obama has already ordered an increase of 21,000 troops since taking office.

The additional troops would be concentrated in the south and east of Afghanistan, the areas where the U.S. already has most of its forces, said military officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, reported the AP.

The president’s revised strategy is also expected to include timelines for training Afghan army and police units to eventually take security responsibility from U.S. and NATO forces, according to Reuters.

Gates has said an eventual drawdown of troops in Afghanistan could follow the Iraq model, in which U.S. forces left city centers first. But he cautioned against putting a specific date on the U.S. military’s exit, saying it depended in large part on conditions on the ground.

The following is a snapshot of troop levels by country in Afghanistan as of Oct. 22, 2009:

Source: NATO International Security Assistance Force

*The United States has about 33,000 troops in Afghanistan in addition to the ISAF forces.