Obama and Karzai Conference
US president Obama and Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai had a video conference that took 1 hour. The main topic on the agenda was the new U.S. policy for Afghanistan.
The conference between the two presidents Hamid Karzai and Barack Obama came before a speech Obama was going to hold on Tuesday night at the U.S. Military Academy West Point, N.Y. it is expected that Barack Obama will discuss his war plans and dispatch 30,000 to 35,000 more troops to Afghanistan. Mr Karzai’s office say the two leaders discussed many subjects including security, political, military and economic aspects of the new strategy in detail.
The call was one of several Mr. Obama was making to world leaders, including Asif Ali Zardari, the president of neighbouring Pakistan.
According to CBS News correspondent David Martin 30,000 more troops will be 10,000 less then what Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the commander in Afghanistan requested for. The president hopes to make up at least some of the difference with contributions from NATO allies.
Barack Obama plans to send the extra troops to Afghanistan within the next year who will join the 71,000 U.S. troops already on the ground. Mr. Obama’s new war strategy also includes renewed focus on training Afghan forces to take over the fight and allow the Americans to leave.
“I think NATO will come through with a couple thousand and so I think we’ll still be somewhat short of what Gen. McChrystal proposed,” said Michael O’Hanlon of the Brookings Institution.
Obama is also expected to justify his choices in why he believes more troops are required after 8 years of war which was a result of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Centre by al Qaeda terrorists based in Afghanistan.
He will emphasize that Afghan security forces need more time, more schooling and more U.S. combat backup to be up to the job on their own, and he will make tougher demands on the governments of Pakistan as well as Afghanistan.
