Obama ready to cut Afghan 'surge'

22 June 2011 Last updated at 20:26 GMT US troops first entered Afghanistan in autumn 2001 following the 9/11 attacks US President Barack Obama is expected to announce the withdrawal of 10,000 troops from Afghanistan in 2011, in a nationwide TV address shortly.

Speaking from the White House at 2000 (0000 GMT Thursday), Mr Obama will say 33,000 US "surge" troops will leave by September 2012, officials say.

The US currently has about 100,000 troops in Afghanistan overall.

Divisions remain within the Obama administration over the size and speed of the pullout.

Military commanders are thought to want to limit the number of combat troops removed from the country in an effort not to lose ground gained from the Taliban during recent fighting.

Some 33,000 US troops are in Afghanistan as part of the West Point surge - including the 3,000 troops who enabled the surge.

Several firm reports in the US media suggest 5,000 troops will be brought home in the coming months, starting in July, with 5,000 more before the end of the year.

The BBC's Paul Adams, in Washington, says Mr Obama's expected announcement is a quicker pace of withdrawal than most analysts have predicted in recent days and suggests that the president does not feel he needs to leave the bulk of the surge force in place for another fighting season after the one that is under way now.

Continue reading the main story Bilal Sarwary BBC News, Kabul

The US may be setting a timetable for withdrawing its forces, but there are many questions over the first phase of the security transition. In the past few weeks, insurgents have launched what Afghan intelligence officials say is a carefully planned wave of attacks in all of the areas to be handed over by Nato.

In Panjshir, insurgents tried to detonate a car full of explosives but it blew up before it could reach its target. On Tuesday, the influential governor of Parwan province, Abdul Basir Salangi, a close ally of President Karzai, survived an assassination attempt. In the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, a bomb explosion injured two civilians.

In some areas, insurgents have blockaded cities and towns, leaving thousands short of food and medicines.

Afghanistan's police and army are still dependent on coalition forces for air support, food, ammunition and roadside bomb-clearing. In addition, they have high rates of desertion and drug addiction, as well as "rogue" soldiers - there have been a number of incidents in which men in uniform have turned their weapons on Nato and Afghan colleagues.

The president may also highlight the fact that the overall number of American troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, which stood at around 180,000 when he came into office, should be under 100,000 by the end of this year.

That reduction would go some way towards reassuring critics worried about the escalating cost of the two wars, our correspondent says.

The enormous cost of the military deployment - currently more than $2bn (£1.2bn) a week - is attracting high-profile criticism from Republicans and Democrats.

Meanwhile, the public - battered by hard economic times - are weary of a war that seems to have no end and appears punctuated only by the deaths of young Americans, says the BBC's Jonny Dymond, in Washington.

The Afghan defence ministry welcomed the decision to withdraw foreign troops.

"We appreciate the efforts and sacrifices made by the foreign forces in Afghanistan, but at the same time we congratulate them for returning back to their homelands after a long period of war," a spokesman said.

"The Afghan National Army [ANA] is ready to fill their space but they will face some problems in this area as they still lack weapons and equipment."

Afghan forces are due to take over all security operations by 2014, but BBC correspondents say they are a long way away from being ready for that.

'Gains could be threatened'

Under the current draw down plan the US military would aim to gradually hand over all security operations to Afghan security forces by 2014.

US military leaders are thought to favour a very gradual reduction in troops but other advisers advocate a more significant decrease in the coming months.

Continue reading the main story

We will hear a lot in the coming days about whether the pull-out is too quick or too slow, but it is worth remembering that we are only talking about the extra 30,000 troops Mr Obama has sent”

End Quote Mark Mardell BBC North America editor Mr Obama is expected to tell the American public that while remaining US forces will continue to be withdrawn after the surge troops have left, the pace of that withdrawal will depend on how the initial stage of the draw down goes.

Mr Obama's announcement comes days after departing US Defence Secretary Robert Gates confirmed that the US was holding "outreach" talks with members of the Taliban in Afghanistan.

It was the first time the US had acknowledged such contact.

Earlier this month, Mr Gates said at Nato headquarters that "substantial progress" was being made on the ground in Afghanistan.

But he argued that "these gains could be threatened if we do not proceed with the transition to Afghan security lead in a deliberate, organised and co-ordinated manner".

But some believe the security gains being talked about mean a more rapid withdrawal of US forces is practical.

There is also growing political pressure for a significant withdrawal.

A bipartisan group of 27 US senators sent Mr Obama a letter last week pressing for a shift in strategy.

US troops have been in Afghanistan since 2001

"Given our successes, it is the right moment to initiate a sizable and sustained reduction in forces, with the goal of steadily redeploying all regular combat troops," the senators wrote. "The costs of prolonging the war far outweigh the benefits."

While many Afghans accept that American troops are needed to defeat the Taliban, correspondents say that they resent their presence in the country.

Insurgents are to blame for most of the deaths, but killings by foreign troops generate widespread outrage.

Obama address: Withdrawing surge troops by 2012 (AP)

By BEN FELLER and JULIE PACE, Associated Press Ben Feller And Julie Pace, Associated Press – 2 mins ago

WASHINGTON – Pulling home the Americans he sent to war, President Barack Obama plans to announce Wednesday night the withdrawal of more than 30,000 troops from Afghanistan by the end of next summer, hastening the end of the long conflict that has been more costly than ever envisioned when launched in response to the 2001 attacks on America.

In an address to the nation, Obama will say that he is withdrawing 10,000 troops by the end of this year, and more than 20,000 in addition no later than September 2012, according to administration officials. That accounts for all of the extra forces he ordered to Afghanistan in late 2009 to turn around a flailing war effort.

The fast-paced drawdown, at a time when the public has turned against the war, will be complete just months before he goes before voters in his bid for a second term. Still, it will leave some 70,000 U.S. troops in unstable Afghanistan in a war bound to see more American lives lost.

The United States and its NATO allies hope to end the combat mission and fully turn over control to Afghan forces by the end of 2014, a transition period that may finally bring the war to an end.

Obama is under mounting political pressure to wind down the war, especially since Osama bin Laden, the man considered to be the face of it, is dead. U.S. forces found and killed the al-Qaida leader in Pakistan in May, a significant blow to an organization that nevertheless still threatens the United States.

At least 1,500 members of the U.S. military have died and 12,000 have been wounded since the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001. The financial cost of the war has passed $440 billion and is on the rise given the heavy troop commitment, jumping to $120 billion a year, twice the total of two years ago.

The decision to start withdrawing forces in July amounts to a pledge kept by Obama. Yet the scope and pace of the drawdown have been hotly debated. The military lobbied for a more modest troop reduction and Obama promised a significant one as support for the war by the country and Congress faded.

The initial withdrawal is expected to happen in two phases, with 5,000 troops coming home this summer and an additional 5,000 by the end of the year, a senior U.S. defense official said.

In total, Obama will announce the withdrawal of 33,000 troops. That's the 30,000 he announced he was sending in an address in December 2009, plus an extra 3,000 he authorized Defense Secretary Robert Gates to employ to support the effort.

For Obama, the goal is to explain a stay-the-course moment of progress to the American people — the U.S. is not yet leaving Afghanistan — without the trappings of a major war address. He was speaking from the all-purpose East Room, not the Oval Office, and he was expected to speak for about 10 to 15 minutes, half the time he spent when he announced the troop surge almost 19 months ago.

Obama is arguing that the reinforcements he sent have accomplished their mission: eroding the capacity of Taliban insurgents and providing time and training for Afghanistan's forces to get ready to lead their own country. The United States remains in Afghanistan primarily to keep it from becoming a haven for al-Qaida, the terrorist network that based training operations there before launching the worst attacks on American soil on Sept. 11, 2001. Obama's ultimate goal is to defeat al-Qaida.

Most Americans oppose the war in Afghanistan and are far more concerned about the teetering economic recovery at home. A new AP-GfK poll out Wednesday found that Obama's approval rating on handling Afghanistan dipped to 52 percent, falling 13 points from its high of 65 percent in May just after the death of bin Laden.

In Afghanistan on Wednesday, the nation's Defense Ministry said the NATO-trained military was ready to take responsibility for fighting Taliban insurgents and securing key parts of the country.

Many Afghans are eager to see the Americans leave, yet there are big risks for the government there.

"There will be some battles, there will be suicide attacks and bomb attacks," acknowledged Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi. "But we in the Afghan forces are prepared to replace the foreign forces, and I'm confident the army has enough capacity and ability."

The president reached his withdrawal decision a week after receiving a range of options from Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan.

"The president is commander in chief," spokesman Jay Carney said. "He is in charge of this process, and he makes the decision."

The administration has begun briefing NATO allies on its plans. British Prime Minister David Cameron's office confirmed that officials there have been informed but declined to offer comment, or to make any immediate statement on the plans for about 9,500 British forces in Afghanistan.

A reduction this year totaling 10,000 U.S. troops would be the rough equivalent of two brigades, which are the main building blocks of an Army division. It's not clear whether Obama's decision would require the Pentagon to pull out two full brigades or, instead, withdraw a collection of smaller combat and support units with an equivalent number of troops.

If Obama leaves the bulk of the 30,000 surge contingent in Afghanistan through 2012, he will be giving the military another fighting season — in addition to the one now under way — to damage Taliban forces before a larger withdrawal gets started. It also will buy more time for the Afghan army and police to grow in numbers and capability.

Some U.S. military commanders have favored a more gradual reduction in troops than Obama is expected to announce Wednesday night, arguing that too fast a withdrawal could undermine the fragile security gains.

But other advisers have backed a more significant withdrawal that starts in July and proceeds steadily through the following months. That camp cites the slow yet steady improvements in security, combined with the killing of bin Laden and U.S. success in dismantling much of the al-Qaida network in the country.

On Capitol Hill, even the more moderate or conservative members of Obama's party, such as Sens. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, are pressing for significant cuts and a shift in mission. Obama aides have sidestepped questions about what role the cost of the war played in Obama's decision, saying only that the president was focused on meeting the goal of transferring security by 2014.

Following the announcement on the drawdown, Obama will visit troops Thursday at Fort Drum, the upstate New York Army post that is home to the 10th Mountain Division, one of the most frequently deployed divisions to Afghanistan.

___

Associated Press writers Robert Burns, Lolita C. Baldor, Matthew Lee and Donna Cassata in Washington and Solomon Moore in Kabul, Afghanistan, contributed to this report.