After an exhaustive rethink, Obama came up with a new plan -- a swift troop surge -- 30,000 strong -- and attempted to define an end game for a weary nation with the first timeline of mid-2011 to start bringing forces home.

At the US Military Academy at West Point, Obama had one speech, but many audiences, including Americans dismayed by the war's rising toll, skittish liberal backers and Republican hawks who brand him a weak commander-in-chief.

Further afield, Obama told Afghans to step up and fight corruption, exhorted Pakistani leaders to stay the anti-terror course and called on reluctant Europeans to stump up more troops to ease America's burden.

"I think he gave a very somber, passionless, pragmatic speech, that in some ways aimed to satisfy everyone," said Julian Zelizer, a Princeton University historian and author of a new book on the politics of US foreign policy.

Nathaniel Fick, chief executive of the Center for New American Security added that Obama had chosen "the best of his bad options in Afghanistan by clarifying US objectives there, bolstering international commitment to the mission, and signaling American resolve."

Anthony Cordesman, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the president had laid out a credible plan that could only be tested in its execution and should not be judged too soon in the political tumult.

"I think the thing that everyone needs to understand is that many of the details of this strategy cannot be compressed into a political speech," Cordesman said.

"They are going to emerge over the next couple of weeks."

But Gilles Dorronso, of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, disagreed.

"Obama's strategy will make the Kabul government even more unpopular, and probably leave Afghanistan looking worse than it does now," he said.

The president's downbeat demeanor was a striking contrast to the heady "Yes We Can" days of his campaign, reflecting the tough task at hand.

Several times, Obama told young cadets who will end up fighting his war, that the burden of commander-in-chief weighed heavily.

"I do not make this decision lightly," said Obama, who recently traveled to a Delaware air base to solemnly watch as fallen US soldiers were flown home from the battle.

Noticeably, the president chose not to use the word "victory" -- as his predecessor as president George W. Bush might have done.

Instead, Obama talked of "ending this war successfully" and remembered the fleeting national resolve following the September 11 attacks in 2001 when the conflict against Al-Qaeda was launched.

His rhetoric was sparse and to the point, shorn of anecdotes and stories about everyday Americans called on to show heroism -- a staple of presidential speechmaking on moments of great national occasions.

"Let me be clear. None of this will be easy," said Obama, who as well as Afghanistan, must battle high unemployment, a soaring deficit and other brewing world crises threatening his presidency.

"America, we are passing through a time of great trial," Obama said. "The message that we send in the midst of these storms must be clear; that our cause is just, our resolve unwavering."

Every president faces a balancing act between national security concerns, and the political dynamic at home bearing on his actions.

One of Obama's tasks, in the biggest test of presidential leadership yet, was to convince Americans dismayed by the eight-year war and rising casualties that the battle was still worth fighting.

He rejected "as false history" the fears of many supporters that Afghanistan would come to be his Vietnam, and would damn his presidency, as the 1960s conflict did for former Democratic president Lyndon Johnson.

But while the troop surge plan may have quelled Republican opposition, for now, it seemed to isolate him further from his closest Democratic allies.

"The president has inherited a god awful mess and has no good options available," said senior House of Representatives Democrat David Obey, who has demanded a war tax "surtax" to pay for the operation.

Some Democrats backed Obama, but several close political friends have withheld their support.

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