Obama set to send 30,000 extra troops

With a determination to "finish the job" in Afghanistan, US President Barack Obama will announce his new Afghan strategy Tuesday in a prime-time address at the West Point Military Academy, including a deployment of 30,000 or more US troops as part of an "escalation and exit" policy.

Before the public speech, Obama has already ordered his new Afghan strategy implemented, a White House spokesman said Monday.

In his speech, Obama will articulate both the timeframe for the military maneuver and the goal of this action, which aims to destroy the enemy and bring the troops back home, senior administration officials were quoted Monday by the Telegraph as saying.

Apart from the additional 30,000 to 35,000 troops, Obama will also advocate the sending of 10,000 more soldiers by NATO allies.

The military alliance, which has already contributed 42,000 soldiers to Afghanistan, still adopts a cautious attitude toward military build-up.

"There are real questions in our publics about the way forward, politically and not just militarily," NATO spokesman James Appathurai said.

Currently, only Britain has committed to sending about 500 extra troops.

However, the other major European powers, notably Germany and France, are reluctant to commit any, the AP reported last week.

After eight years engaged in an increasingly unpopular war in Afghanistan, the American president is besieged with tremendous pressure from different aspects.

The US had lost more than 900 troops in Afghanistan, and October was the deadliest month since 2001, with 74 US soldiers killed.

Apart from the human toll, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have cost $768.8 billion, and by the end of this fiscal year (October 2010) the price tag will approach $1 trillion.

The war has also taken its toll on Obama's personal approval rating, which has suffered the sharpest drop of any president in the past 50 years during the same stage of their first terms.

Washington hopes the buildup, expected to be phased in over the next 12 to 18 months, will create conditions to allow the US troop presence to eventually be scaled back, leading to a complete withdrawal from the country by 2017-2018.

However, conservative attitude still exists.

"No one has any illusions that this is the campaign, that you can just turn this thing around with a speech. A lot of this strategy depends on things we can't control – the Afghan government, the Taliban, the role of Pakistan. This is one of those issues that defines the extent and the limits of the president's power," a senior administration official was quoted by the Washington Post as saying.