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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Saturday, March 28, 2009

Obama details new Afghanistan focus

By Paul Richter and Julian E. Barnes
Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON — On the day that a suicide bomber killed dozens of Pakistanis, President Obama yesterday announced a new plan to commit thousands more American troops to Afghanistan and provide more aid to Pakistan in a bid to quell a resurgence by al-Qaida and the Taliban.

Obama, who called Pakistan's western border region "the most dangerous place in the world," evoked images of the Sept. 11 attacks in describing the urgent need to initiate a new strategy. His plan includes the addition of 4,000 U.S. troops to train Afghan security forces on top of 17,000 combat troops the president already ordered to the country and an increase in U.S spending for civilian efforts in Pakistan alone that will amount to an additional $1.5 billion a year.

President Hamid Karzai praised plans to strengthen Afghanistan's civilian and security institutions that are part of the strategy. He said the new strategy will help the country fight terrorism and improve stability.

The new plan gives tremendous latitude to Army Gen. David Petraeus, the top military commander in the region, and Richard Holbrooke, the special U.S. envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan. The two officials are considered likely to wield the most influence among administration officials in crafting the particulars of the campaign.

The suicide attack in a mosque in northwest Pakistan that killed dozens of worshippers served as a gruesome reminder of the violence the new policy aims to curb through what Obama described as a "stronger, smarter" and more comprehensive approach than the one used by the Bush administration.

The new strategy, coming after an exhaustive White House review, firmly places Obama's stamp on the war effort. In place of optimistic declarations of progress that were common under former President George W. Bush, Obama somberly tried to lower expectations.

"The road ahead will be long, and there will be difficult days," he cautioned.

But he also leaned heavily on the former president's argument that the mission is necessary because al-Qaida is plotting attacks on the United States.

The new strategy left many important questions of timing and tactics to be decided later, by military and diplomatic strategists who are still at work on the details.

Those details will determine how long the plan will take, how much it will cost, how benchmarks will be applied and enforced, and how the plan's specific strategies — such as retarding a Taliban drive in Afghanistan or rooting out al-Qaida sanctuaries in Pakistan — will be pursued.

Much of what Obama formally presented was known in the days preceding his announcement. Beside extra troops, Obama will assign hundreds of civilian officials to Afghanistan to improve public services and governance and try to end the country's reliance on opium production.

U.S. officials will try to reconcile with former Taliban members in Afghanistan and said the new, nonmilitary aid to Pakistan would encourage a crackdown on extremists in that country, all part of a drive to "disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-Qaida," Obama said.

The broad outline will be left to military and diplomatic officials around the world to fill in. For instance, the U.S. command in Afghanistan will begin work on a new "joint campaign plan" in the weeks to come to reflect the new strategy, said a senior military officer.

Likewise, it will be left to Holbrooke and Petraeus to act on Obama's request to better integrate U.S. military and civilian efforts in the region.

The lack of detail in some cases has resulted in controversy. For example, Obama stressed there would be no "blank check" for U.S. spending or open-ended commitment on America's time, but he did not impose limits on either. As a result, many conservatives and moderates cheered his comments yesterday, while anti-war groups expressed dismay.

"The road ahead will be long, and there will be difficult days."