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| Obama approves 17,000 additional troops for Afghanistan |
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Thursday, February 19, 2009
Kabul welcomes, Afghans wary
WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama on Tuesday approved 17,000 additional troops for Afghanistan this spring and summer, calling the increase as necessary to stabilise the country, where the security has been on the continuous downslide in the face of a spreading Taliban insurgency.
“This increase is necessary to stabilise a deteriorating situation in Afghanistan, which has not received the strategic attention, direction and resources it urgently requires,” Obama said in a statement.
Under the plan, the new troop deployment is expected to include 8,000 Marines from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, as well as 4,000 additional Army troops from Fort Lewis, Washington. Another 5,000 troops will be deployed at a later date to support combat troops, bringing the total to 17,000.
In the White House statement, Obama said: “There is no more solemn duty as the president than the decision to deploy our armed forces into harm’s way. I do it today mindful that the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan demands urgent attention and swift action.”
According to CNN, all 17,000 troops will go to the southern region of Afghanistan. They will also train Afghan army units. Obama said he had approved Defence Secretary Robert Gates request to meet urgent security needs. “This increase has been requested by General McKiernan and supported by Secretary Gates, the Joint Chiefs and the Commander of Central Command. General McKiernan’s request for these troops is months old, and the fact that we are going to responsibly drawdown our forces in Iraq allows us the flexibility to increase our presence in Afghanistan.”
The US leader said he ordered a review of the American policy upon taking office, in order to have a “comprehensive strategy and the necessary resources to meet clear and achievable objectives in Afghanistan and the region.”
“This troop increase does not pre-determine the outcome of that strategic review. Instead, it will further enable our team to put together a comprehensive strategy that will employ all elements of our national power to fulfill achievable goals in Afghanistan.
“As we develop our new strategic goals, we will do so in concert with our friends and allies as together we seek the resources necessary to succeed.” Meanwhile, in an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation on Tuesday, Obama said he was “absolutely convinced that you cannot solve the problem of Afghanistan, the Taliban, the spread of extremism in that region solely through military means.”
“I think Afghanistan is still winnable, in the sense of our ability to ensure that it is not a launching pad for attacks against North America. I think it’s still possible for us to stamp out al-Qaeda to make sure that extremism is not expanding but rather is contracting. I think all those goals are still possible, but I think that as a consequence to the war on Iraq, we took our eye off the ball. We have not been as focused as we need to be on all the various steps that are needed in order to deal with Afghanistan.”
“If you’ve got narco-trafficking that is funding the Taliban, if there is a perception that there’s no rule of law in Afghanistan, if we don’t solve the issue of the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, then we’re probably not going to solve the problem,” he added.
Meanwhile, Afghan officials on Wednesday welcomed US President Barack Obama’s decision to send 17,000 more soldiers to fight a Taliban-led insurgency here but ordinary people feared more troops would mean more attacks.
“It’s a positive move,” Afghan defence ministry spokesman Mohammad Is’haq Payman told AFP. “But we have our own conditions. We want these troops to be deployed in areas where they could play a positive role in suppressing terrorists,” he said.
“We want them to be deployed along the border, in eastern, southeastern and southern parts of the country.” Their presence was vital for the vote, said foreign ministry spokesman Sultan Ahmad Baheen. Weak security in the south, where the insurgency is most intense, has sparked fears that the election could be jeopardised. “These additional troops can help improve security in the country so our people vote freely,” Baheen told AFP.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
