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THE STANS
Obama prepares to announce Afghan surge

9,000 Marines to Helmand after Obama speech: report
Washington (AFP) Nov 28, 2009 - The US military will deploy up to 9,000 Marines to Afghanistan's Helmand province -- doubling US presence there -- in the days after President Barack Obama's war strategy announcement this week, the Washington Post said Saturday. Citing senior US officials, the daily said the extra Marines won't move to the restive southern province until after Obama's address to the nation Tuesday from the prestigious West Point military academy in New York state. The aim is to regain a footing in the region that has been a base for a fierce Taliban insurgency in recent months.

Some 1,000 army trainers will follow the Marine's deployment, perhaps by February next year, the Post said. "The first troops out of the door are going to be Marines," General James Conway, the top Marine officer, was quoted as telling soldiers in Afghanistan on Saturday. "We've been leaning forward in anticipation of a decision. And we've got some pretty stiff fighting coming," he said, according to the Post. Obama has been weighing requests from his Afghan war commander, General Stanley McChrystal, to send up to 40,000 more troops to join 68,000 US troops already in Afghanistan. Last week the president, accused of dithering on his decision, said he would make it clear "the Afghan people ultimately are going to have to provide for their own security," and would call on allies in Europe and beyond to help.

Australian PM heads for key US talks
Port Of Spain (AFP) Nov 29, 2009 - Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was heading to Washington Sunday for key talks with US President Barack Obama to be dominated by climate change and the conflict in Afghanistan. Rudd will arrive fresh from a Commonwealth summit in Trinidad where he helped steer a landmark declaration backing moves to draw up a legally binding pact to fight global warming at climate talks in Copenhagen. Obama will host the Australian prime minister, whose country is a key member of the coalition fighting in Afghanistan, at the White House on Monday. "Obviously a primary preoccupation of both the president and myself is the Copenhagen conference and our respective efforts to deliver a strong, robust Copenhagen agreement," Rudd told journalists in Trinidad.

But the two men will also discuss Afghanistan on the eve of a nationwide address by Obama to lay out a new strategy for the conflict including deploying more than 30,000 extra troops. During a surprise visit to Australian forces fighting in southern Afghanistan two weeks ago, Rudd gave assurances his troops were in for the long haul. But he indicated Sunday that he would refuse any request to send more soldiers to the conflict. Australia has about 1,550 troops in Afghanistan, making it the ninth biggest contributor of international forces fighting the hardline Islamists who were forced from power in 2001.

"Earlier this year... Australia increased its troop commitment to Afghanistan by about 40 percent," Rudd said Sunday. "As I have said consistently since then, we believe our troop commitment is about right and my view on that hasn't changed." The United States has some 68,000 troops in Afghanistan, bearing by far the largest share of the burden of the fight against the Taliban and remnants of Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network. NATO allies, whose 42,000-strong contribution swells the number of foreign forces in Afghanistan to about 110,000, are due to consider sending more troops at gatherings of the military alliance December 3-4 and on December 7. The White House said Friday: "Australia is an important ally of and partner with the United States in addressing the many common regional and global challenges we face."
by Staff Writers
 Washington (AFP) Nov 29, 2009
 Barack Obama is set to make the boldest strategic move of his presidency on Tuesday and order a surge of tens of thousands more US troops into an increasingly unpopular war in Afghanistan.

In front of cadets at the prestigious West Point military academy, Obama is expected to announce between 30,000 and 35,000 reinforcements as part of a new Afghan strategy intended in his own words to "finish the job" there.

More than eight years after a US-led invasion ousted the Taliban regime after it refused to hand over Osama bin Laden and other Al-Qaeda leaders accused of plotting the September 11 attacks in 2001, the president is also under pressure to lay out an exit strategy in his 8:00 pm (0100 GMT Wednesday) address to the American nation.

Many doubt the wisdom of escalating the conflict, with increasing numbers of troops being deployed as casualty rates soar, amid inevitable comparisons to the Vietnam War that ultimately doomed Lyndon Johnson's presidency.

There were 35,000 American soldiers fighting the Taliban-led insurgency when Obama became president. After an initial boost in February there are now about 68,000. Tuesday's announcement could see troop levels triple under his tenure.

"You have to learn lessons from history. On the other hand, each historical moment is different. You never step into the same river twice. And so Afghanistan is not Vietnam," Obama said in September.

His predecessor George W. Bush faced strong opposition when he sent an extra 20,000 troops into Iraq's 2007 surge -- a move widely credited with helping stem the chaos and improving security there -- so does Obama.

More than 900 American soldiers have lost their lives in Afghanistan and October was the deadliest month since the start of the war in 2001 with 74 US soldiers killed.

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

Piling more pressure on a stretched US military, the surge will also expand America's huge budget deficit, and Obama's Democratic allies fear the war's cost will suck hundreds of billions from vital projects at home.

Obama will therefore insist the renewed US engagement is neither unlimited nor unconditional and that the cause is clear: to prevent the region from serving as a base for attacks against the United States -- far from the grandiose notion of installing democracy espoused by the Bush administration.

He will make the training of Afghan forces imperative and impress upon corruption tainted Afghan President Hamid Karzai, re-elected to a second term after disputed elections in August, the need to improve his governance.

An international conference in London aimed at setting clear goals in Afghanistan was announced on Saturday by Britain and France and won swift support from Washington.

Karzai has to realize "that there will be milestones by which he's going to be judged and he's got to accept that there will be benchmarks which the international community will set," British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said.

Obama is also seeking thousands more troops from reluctant NATO allies.

The military alliance, whose 42,000-strong contribution swells the number of foreign forces in Afghanistan to about 110,000, will discuss sending more troops at a ministerial-level meeting on Thursday and Friday in Brussels.

But key NATO members have cautioned that they will wait until after the London conference in January before deciding whether to commit more resources.

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

A poll released Wednesday showed Americans divided on whether to dispatch more US troops, with half of those surveyed backing escalation while 39 percent said it was time to begin withdrawing forces.

The US Senate published a report on the eve of Obama's announcement that concludes that Bin Laden was "within the grasp" of US forces in late 2001, only two months after the invasion, but escaped because then-defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld rejected calls for reinforcements.

"Our inability to finish the job in late 2001 has contributed to a conflict today that endangers not just our troops and those of our allies, but the stability of a volatile and vital region," said Senator John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who commissioned the report.

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THE STANS
Talks to set Afghan goals for British troop exit
 Port Of Spain (AFP) Nov 28, 2009
 Britain aims to set clear goals in Afghanistan at top-level talks next year to move towards bringing its troops home, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Saturday amid public anger at the war. Afghan President Hamid Karzai, UN chief Ban Ki-moon and major contributors to the coalition fighting in Afghanistan including the United States as well as regional neighbors will be invited to the London ... read more






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