One year to gauge Afghan war success, Obama says
Published 10:38 pm Sunday, December 13, 2009
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Sunday said he’ll know by the end of 2010 if his Afghan strategy is working, and pledges to change direction if the U.S. military is not on course “in terms of securing population centers” from militants.
After doubling the U.S. force in Afghanistan in March, Obama raised the stakes further Dec. 1 by ordering 30,000 more soldiers and Marines into the 8-year-old war.
Obama on Sunday answered critics who saw ambiguity in ordering the big troop increase while also saying some of them probably would begin coming home in July 2011. That’s the date when U.S. military forces plan to start handing security responsibility to Afghan soldiers and police.
“We then start transitioning into a drawdown phase,” Obama said. “How many U.S. troops are coming out, how quickly, will be determined by conditions on the ground.”
He gave himself a loophole.
“If the approach that’s been recommended doesn’t work, then yes, we’re going to be changing approaches,” he said. Obama quickly added that the deadline was necessary to alert the Afghan leadership that the U.S. was not going to make Afghanistan an American “protectorate.”
The first contingent of new U.S. forces, a Marine unit, is to be in place by Christmas.
