Obama briefs world leaders on Afghan strategy

Tue Dec 1, 2009

As the US public support for the Afghan war is fading away, President Barack Obama has briefed world leaders on his new strategy for the eight-year conflict.

"The commander in chief has issued the orders," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said on Monday.

His orders to US military commanders came before making a major speech to the American people at the US Military Academy at West Point on Tuesday.

The US president is expected to announce an increase of up to 35,000 additional US forces to Afghanistan and an exit timeframe, according to officials.

On new war strategy, Obama called French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Monday.

French newspaper Le Monde said Washington had asked for 1,500 more French troops.

The US leader also told Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd of his plans in person, during Oval Office talks. Rudd vowed to send more police trainers and civilian aid experts to Afghanistan.

Some 35,000 American soldiers were deployed in Afghanistan when Obama took office. After an initial boost in February there is now about 68,000.

The new surge would put more than 100,000 American troops in Afghanistan at an annual cost of about $75 billion when the nation is struggling to reduce high unemployment and foreclosure rates.

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

Aside from the high human death toll, inflicted mostly on civilian population of Iraq and Afghanistan, the wars have cost 768.8 billion dollars and by the end of this fiscal year (October 2010) the price tag will approach one trillion.

Meanwhile, Pakistani Premier Yousuf Raza Gilani said on Sunday that the US decision to send thousands of extra troops to Afghanistan may destabilize his country.

Gilani, in an interview with DPA, went on to add that an increase in US troops in Afghanistan is likely to lead to a spill over of militants inside Pakistan.

Pakistan has been witnessing increasing violence ever since the country joined the so-called US-led war on terror. Deadly attacks and bombings have claimed countless lives across Pakistan in recent years.

Opinion polls show US public support for the Afghan war has significantly dropped since Obama's presidency, with a majority now saying that they oppose the war which is not worth fighting.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/112562.html.