By IINA,
Washington : The US President Barack Obama has approved the deployment of an extra 17,000 troops for Afghanistan, the White House has confirmed. The deployment would include an additional US army brigade and a marine expeditionary force, along with support staff, Obama said in a statement yesterday. “This increase is necessary to stabilize a deteriorating situation in Afghanistan, which has not received the strategic attention, direction and resources it urgently requires,” he said.
Obama said he made the deployment decision after a request from Robert Gates, the US secretary of defense. The move puts troops on the ground in time for the increase in fighting that usually comes with warmer weather, and in time for national elections to be held in Afghanistan in August.
Meanwhile, the office of Hamid Karzai announced that Obama spoke to the Afghan president of Tuesday – the first time since the US presidential inauguration last month. The two leaders spoke on the telephone about security issues and the Afghan presidential elections, Karzai’s office said on Wednesday. The US troop increase is the first installment of a larger influx of US forces that Obama was widely expected to announce after entering office in January. The US administration is currently reviewing its policy in Afghanistan, the results of which are expected to be released in April, although Obama said the increase in troops would not “pre-determine” the outcome of the review.
Al Jazeera’s Rob Reynolds says that for Obama to wait until April for a troop increase would be to risk a further increase in violence, which is why he acceded to his commanders’ request. However, he says the Pentagon may still be a little wary of too many soldiers in Afghanistan – many in the US are warning Obama not to go down the same route as Lyndon Johnson, the former US president, who found himself in a quagmire in Vietnam. Analysts say US troop build-up in Afghanistan could reach up to 60,000 troops from current levels of 38,000 in the coming months.