Obama will deliver his Afghanistan war escalation speech before soldiers/cadets at West Point

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Wed Nov-25-09 11:48 PM
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Obama will deliver his Afghanistan war escalation speech before soldiers/cadets at West Point

Obama Will Use West Point as Backdrop to Present Afghan Strategy
by HELENE COOPER
November 25, 2009

WASHINGTON � President Obama will formally unveil his Afghanistan strategy on Tuesday night in a prime-time televised address before a group of cadets and soldiers at the United States Military Academy at West Point, White House officials said Wednesday.

In speaking at West Point, the oldest and arguably the most storied of the country�s service academies, Mr. Obama will be following a long tradition of presidents who sought to envelop significant policy initiatives with a cloak of military history and ritual.

President George W. Bush discussed his doctrine of preventive attack during a West Point speech in 2002. He then defended the doctrine six years later, again at West Point, after the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India, a year ago, when he issued a pointed message that �we will do what is necessary to protect American troops and the American people.�

There had been speculation that Mr. Obama would reveal his latest strategy for Afghanistan in a speech from the Oval Office � a setting that brings with it the prestige and history of the American presidency. But such addresses can also come across as stark, with the president talking straight into a camera, lacking an audience to play off.

Still, he will have a tough job, especially among his allies. On Wednesday, the Center for American Progress, a liberal research organization that is usually supportive of the Obama White House, issued a statement suggesting five demands that Congress should make of the administration before providing any additional financing for the war in Afghanistan.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/26/us/politics/26afghan.html

Statement on Obama's Upcoming Decision on Afghanistan
November 25, 2009

Click on this link: http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2009/11/cap_statement.html

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Obama will unveil Afghan troops move at West Point
By ANNE GEARAN and ANNE FLAHERTY
Associated Press
November 25, 2009

WASHINGTON � President Barack Obama plans to announce a redrawn battle plan for Afghanistan, including what the military says could be a roughly 50 percent increase in U.S. forces, in a national address Tuesday night from the U.S. Military Academy.

The addition forces would come atop a record 71,000 U.S. troops in the country now and would represent the largest expansion since the war began eight years ago.

The president promised this week to "finish the job" begun eight years ago, and press secretary Robert Gibbs said Wednesday the announcement would include an exit strategy. But the surge in troops would be Obama's second since taking office, and liberal Democrats already are lining up against it, in part because of the also-surging cost � up to $75 billion a year.

Obama approved 21,000 additional troops for Afghanistan last spring, in what he said at the time was a wholesale rethinking of U.S. strategy for a war he said his predecessor had neglected. That brought U.S. troop force to an expected 68,000 by the end of this year. The actual figure is slightly higher now because of overlap between troops entering and leaving the country on regular rotations. The new troops Obama is expected to add would probably not begin to arrive until February or March.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iqyaFh_efr-brDq0rMLF1hkop0tgD9C6VFKO0