Obama orders 17,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan

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Obama orders 17,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan
By Andrew Gray Andrew Gray 1 hr 59 mins ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama, in his first major
military decision, has ordered 17,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan
to
tackle worsening insurgent violence, the White House said on Tuesday.

"This increase is necessary to stabilize a deteriorating situation in
Afghanistan, which has not received the strategic attention,
direction
and resources it urgently requires," Obama said in a written
statement.

As a presidential candidate, Obama promised to focus more attention
on
the war in Afghanistan, where violence has risen dramatically in the
past two years as Taliban militants and other insurgents have gained
strength.

"The decision was communicated to the Pentagon yesterday. The orders
were signed today," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters
traveling with Obama in Denver.

The 17,000 troops include an Army brigade equipped with Stryker
armored
vehicles, a Marine expeditionary brigade and support personnel,
officials said.

The forces are part of an anticipated U.S. troop build-up that could
expand the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan to 60,000 troops,
from
a current 38,000, in coming months.

There are also some 30,000 troops from NATO nations attempting to
stabilize Afghanistan.

"There is no more solemn duty as President than the decision to
deploy
our armed forces into harm's way," Obama said. "I do it today mindful
that the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan demands urgent
attention
and swift action."

The announcement comes while the White House is still conducting a
broad
review of U.S. policy on Afghanistan.

The deployment provides two of three extra combat brigades requested
by
top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, U.S. Army General David
McKiernan.

The extra forces will go to southern Afghanistan, where a shortage of
U.S. and NATO troops face an intensifying Taliban insurgency.

The units had originally been scheduled to go to Iraq and Obama's
said
"the fact that we are going to responsibly drawdown our forces in
Iraq
allows us the flexibility to increase our presence in Afghanistan."

A senior administration official said on Tuesday Obama will make a
decision in weeks on cutting troop levels in Iraq, where the United
States has 146,000 troops. Obama has pledged to pull out all U.S.
combat
troops from Iraq within 16 months, while shifting thousands of
soldiers
to Afghanistan.

Both Democrats and Republicans welcomed Obama's decision to send more
troops to Afghanistan.

Sen. John McCain, the Arizona Republican defeated by Obama in last
November's presidential election, described the situation in
Afghanistan
as "dire." But he also called on Obama to spell out a clear strategy.

"There still exists no integrated civil-military plan for this war --
more than seven years after we began military operations," McCain
said.
"A major change in course is long overdue."

(Additional reporting by David Morgan in Washington and Caren Bohan
in
Denver, editing by Vicki Allen)

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