NEW YORK: President Barack Obama said on Tuesday he is ordering 30,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan by next summer to counter a resurgent Taliban and plans to begin a troop withdrawal in 18 months.
The goal, Obama said in a prime-time televised address, is to speed the battle against Taliban insurgents, secure key population centers and train Afghan security forces so they can take over and clear the way for a U.S. exit.
"As commander-in-chief, I have determined that it is in our vital national interest to send an additional 30,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan. After 18 months, our troops will begin to come home," Obama said.
His exit strategy appeared to be an attempt not only to sell his shift in strategy to war-weary Americans but also to put pressure on Afghan
President Hamid Karzai to fight corruption in his government.
Under his 2011 timeframe, U.S. troops would begin returning home before Obama's expected re-election bid in 2012.
The Afghan government welcomed Obama's new strategy. Kabul has long called for the deployment of more than the 113,000 NATO and U.S. troops currently in Afghanistan to crush an insurgency at its deadliest and most widespread since U.S.-led troops ousted the Taliban regime in 2001.
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