30,000 more American troops to be sent to Afghanistan
Updated
United States President Barack Obama will tell war-weary Americans tonight that he intends to send more than thirty thousand extra troops to Afghanistan.
The new troops will be sent into battle sooner rather than later - indeed, some will be in Afghanistan by Christmas. President Obama's decision is causing alarm amongst Democrats, amid talk of the introduction of a "war tax".
Presenter: John Shovelan
Speakers: Robert Gibbs, White House spokesman; Denis McDonough, Chief of staff of the President's National Security Council; David Obey, Democrat chair of the House Appropriations Committee
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JOHN SHOVELAN: President Obama's sales pitch will tie his bigger and vastly more expensive Afghan war plan to an exit strategy.
His challenge is to sell to a sceptical public escalation and exit all at once.
Administration officials are saying President Obama will say that Afghan troops will take the lead and US troops will start leaving Afghanistan well before the end of his first term.
His administration argues deploying more troops is the swiftest way to end the eight year old war.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs today emphasized that exit strategy.
ROBERT GIBBS: This will not be nation building. This is not an open ended commitment. What we're doing is putting forth a comprehensive strategy and an end game in Afghanistan.
JOHN SHOVELAN: It's understood after an initial surge the deployment schedule for additional troops will be conditional on the Afghan Government of Hamid Karzai meeting benchmarks.
Far from being what President Obama called a national security war of necessity, he's now placing strict conditions on the continuing level of US involvement.
Laying out the exit strategy with a broad time frame, the President is acknowledging the public resistance to fighting a war while the US economy and standard of living has been in a steep decline.
Chief of staff of the President's National Security Council Denis McDonough said that Americans want to see progress.
DENIS MCDONOUGH: We're investing additional resources here in the short term to create the space to make that progress.
JOHN SHOVELAN: The White House estimates each soldier costs about $1.1 million a year while deployed, making the cost of the escalation in treasure alone over $30 billion.
With the national debt about $12 trillion, Democrats are proposing a war tax to pay for the escalation.
Democrat David Obey, chair of the House Appropriations Committee, is opposed to the additional troop deployment.
DAVID OBEY: I don't think we have the tools in the Afghan Government and until we do I think that much of what we do is a fool's errand.
JOHN SHOVELAN: He has drafted a bill that would see high income earners paying a 5 per cent war surcharge while low income earners would have to pay a 1 per cent charge.
DAVID OBEY: The only people being asked to sacrifice are military families. They've had to go to the well again and again and again.
JOHN SHOVELAN: Some Liberal Democrats will defect and won't support funding for the expansion of the war.
The additional US forces and the contribution from NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) allies and other countries will allow the administration to argue they have granted the wishes of their commander in the field, General Stanley McChrystal, who asked for another 40,000 troops.
