Obama: No quick decision on troops to Afghan war

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(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-09-17 11:38

A US Marine watches as a helicopter lands near a base near the town of Khan Neshin in Rig district of Helmand province, southern Afghanistan September 13, 2009. [Agencies]

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama said Wednesday there will be no quick decision on whether to send more US troops into the widening war in Afghanistan. "My determination is to get this right," he said.

On Tuesday, Adm. Mike Mullen, Obama's top military adviser as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, endorsed an increase in US forces as probably necessary to battle a deepening insurgency. The US and NATO commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, also has delivered a grim assessment of the war and is expected to follow up soon with a request for thousands of additional troops.

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"I'm going to take a very deliberate process in making those decisions," said Obama, taking questions from reporters as he sat in the Oval Office with visiting Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. "And so I just want to be absolutely clear, because there's been a lot of discussion in the press about this: There is no immediate decision pending on resources," Obama said.

Even as Obama spoke about a methodical war review, administration officials were briefing selected lawmakers on McChrystal's review and on White House proposals for 46 benchmarks to gauge progress in the stalemated Afghan war and the hunt for al-Qaida in neighboring Pakistan.

The president already has ordered 21,000 more troops to Afghanistan, increasing the US commitment there to 68,000 by year's end. Yet violence in Afghanistan has soared to record levels. More US troops, 51, died in Afghanistan in August than in any other month since the US-led invasion in October 2001.

Obama faces mounting pressure on what do next, both from an anxious and war-weary public and from members of his own Democratic Party. He said he will follow his plan of doing a broad assessment of military, diplomatic, civilian and developmental efforts in Afghanistan before deciding his next steps.

"One of the things that I'm absolutely clear about is you have to get the strategy right and then make determinations about resources," Obama said.

"You don't make determinations about resources, certainly you don't make determinations about sending your men and women into battle, without having absolute clarity about what the strategy is going to be."

Asked if US and NATO forces were winning the war in Afghanistan, Obama did not answer directly.

But he said it is evident that "we have lacked as clear of a strategy and a mission as is necessary in order to meet our overriding objectives."

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