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WAR: Obama OKs 17,000 more troops for Afghanistan...
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[font=Verdana,Sans-serif]WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obamahas approved adding about 17,000 U.S. troops for the flagging war in Afghanistan, administration, defense and congressional officials saidTuesday.[/font]
[font=Verdana,Sans-serif]The Obama administration is expected toannounce on Tuesday that it will send one additional Army brigade and an unknown number of Marines to Afghanistan this spring and summer. Officials spoke oncondition of anonymity ahead of the official announcement.[/font]
[font=Verdana,Sans-serif]About 8,000 Marines are expected to goin first, followed by about 9,000 Army troops.[/font]
[font=Verdana,Sans-serif]The new forces represent the firstinstallment on a larger influx of U.S. forces widely expected this year. Obama's decision would get several thousand troops in place in time for theincrease in fighting that usually comes with warmer weather and ahead of national elections in August.[/font]
[font=Verdana,Sans-serif]The additional forces partly answer astanding request from the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. David McKiernan, who has sought as many as 30,000 additional U.S. forces to counter theresurgence of the Taliban militants and protect Afghan civilians.[/font]
[font=Verdana,Sans-serif]The United States has slightly more than30,000 troops in Afghanistan now.[/font]
[font=Verdana,Sans-serif]The new units are a Marine ExpeditionaryBrigade unit from Camp Lejeune, N.C., and an Army Stryker brigade from Fort Lewis in Washington state.[/font]
[font=Verdana,Sans-serif]Ahead of his first foreign trip, Obamatold a Canadian news organization that the United States will seek a more comprehensive, diplomatic approach to Afghanistan, where the U.S. has been engaged inwar since 2001.[/font]
[font=Verdana,Sans-serif]"I am absolutely convinced that youcannot solve the problem of Afghanistan, the Taliban, the spread of extremism in that region solely through military means," the president said in a WhiteHouse interview with Toronto-based Canadian Broadcasting Corp.[/font]
[font=Verdana,Sans-serif]Obama is scheduled to make a quick daytrip to Ottawa on Thursday[/font]
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Barack Obama has approved a significant troop increase for Afghanistan, Pentagon officials toldCNN Tuesday.
The new troop deployment is expected to include 8,000 Marines headquartered from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, as well as 4,000 additionalArmy troops from Fort Lewis, Washington.
"This increase is necessary to stabilize a deteriorating situation in Afghanistan, which has not received the strategic attention,direction and resources it urgently requires," Obama said in a written statement.
"The Taliban is resurgent in Afghanistan, and al Qaeda supports the insurgency and threatens America from its safe-haven along thePakistani border."
Obama added that the troop increase in Afghanistan would be made possible in part by the impending troop drawdown in Iraq.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said the original mission in Afghanistan was "too broad" and needs to be more "realisticand focused" for the United States to succeed.
"If we set ourselves the objective of creating some sort of central Asian Valhalla over there, we will lose, because nobody in the worldhas that kind of time, patience and money," Gates said during a recent Senate hearing.
About 38,000 U.S. troops are currentlyserving in Afghanistan.
My brother's a Marine, looks like there's a chance he'll be going to Afghan.... damn.
[font=Verdana,Sans-serif][/font]
[font=Verdana,Sans-serif]WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obamahas approved adding about 17,000 U.S. troops for the flagging war in Afghanistan, administration, defense and congressional officials saidTuesday.[/font]
[font=Verdana,Sans-serif]The Obama administration is expected toannounce on Tuesday that it will send one additional Army brigade and an unknown number of Marines to Afghanistan this spring and summer. Officials spoke oncondition of anonymity ahead of the official announcement.[/font]
[font=Verdana,Sans-serif]About 8,000 Marines are expected to goin first, followed by about 9,000 Army troops.[/font]
[font=Verdana,Sans-serif]The new forces represent the firstinstallment on a larger influx of U.S. forces widely expected this year. Obama's decision would get several thousand troops in place in time for theincrease in fighting that usually comes with warmer weather and ahead of national elections in August.[/font]
[font=Verdana,Sans-serif]The additional forces partly answer astanding request from the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. David McKiernan, who has sought as many as 30,000 additional U.S. forces to counter theresurgence of the Taliban militants and protect Afghan civilians.[/font]
[font=Verdana,Sans-serif]The United States has slightly more than30,000 troops in Afghanistan now.[/font]
[font=Verdana,Sans-serif]The new units are a Marine ExpeditionaryBrigade unit from Camp Lejeune, N.C., and an Army Stryker brigade from Fort Lewis in Washington state.[/font]
[font=Verdana,Sans-serif]Ahead of his first foreign trip, Obamatold a Canadian news organization that the United States will seek a more comprehensive, diplomatic approach to Afghanistan, where the U.S. has been engaged inwar since 2001.[/font]
[font=Verdana,Sans-serif]"I am absolutely convinced that youcannot solve the problem of Afghanistan, the Taliban, the spread of extremism in that region solely through military means," the president said in a WhiteHouse interview with Toronto-based Canadian Broadcasting Corp.[/font]
[font=Verdana,Sans-serif]Obama is scheduled to make a quick daytrip to Ottawa on Thursday[/font]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Barack Obama has approved a significant troop increase for Afghanistan, Pentagon officials toldCNN Tuesday.
The new troop deployment is expected to include 8,000 Marines headquartered from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, as well as 4,000 additionalArmy troops from Fort Lewis, Washington.
"This increase is necessary to stabilize a deteriorating situation in Afghanistan, which has not received the strategic attention,direction and resources it urgently requires," Obama said in a written statement.
"The Taliban is resurgent in Afghanistan, and al Qaeda supports the insurgency and threatens America from its safe-haven along thePakistani border."
Obama added that the troop increase in Afghanistan would be made possible in part by the impending troop drawdown in Iraq.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said the original mission in Afghanistan was "too broad" and needs to be more "realisticand focused" for the United States to succeed.
"If we set ourselves the objective of creating some sort of central Asian Valhalla over there, we will lose, because nobody in the worldhas that kind of time, patience and money," Gates said during a recent Senate hearing.
About 38,000 U.S. troops are currentlyserving in Afghanistan.
My brother's a Marine, looks like there's a chance he'll be going to Afghan.... damn.
