Obama zeros in on Afghanistan

President Obama said Friday that he will send more troops to Afghanistan, more money to Pakistan and push for renewed diplomatic attention to the region to combat terrorism - moves met with a positive international response as the president prepares to travel abroad to build support for his new strategy.

Mr. Obama said his administration’s review found that the status of the seven-year-long war is “increasingly perilous” and declared a “clear and focused goal: to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and to prevent their return to either country in the future.”

The announcement drew a largely positive response from across the U.S. political spectrum as well as abroad. A veterans’ group even suggested that he “gets it.” But Mr. Obama’s 2008 presidential rival, Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican, told The Washington Times that the steps were not enough and called it “incrementalism.”

The Afghan government, put in place after U.S.-led forces overturned the Taliban in 2001, welcomed Mr. Obama’s promise to send 4,000 more troops to join 17,000 on the way, bringing total U.S. forces in Afghanistan to 60,000 by August, when the country is scheduled to hold presidential elections.

President Hamid Karzai, who is fighting for his political future, said the new strategy “will bring Afghanistan and the international community closer to success,” the Associated Press reported.

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said he also welcomed the initiative and urged Congress to implement it by approving $1.5 billion in annual aid to Pakistan for the next five years.

Speaking as a suicide bombing at a mosque in Peshawar, near the Afghan border, killed dozens, Mr. Zardari said the creation of reconstruction opportunity zones in Pakistani tribal areas would help defeat terrorism by alleviating poverty.

“Pakistan has always maintained that without going into the root cause, the menace of terrorism cannot be overcome and that is only possible by providing the people there with employment opportunities,” Mr. Zardari said.

Mr. Obama outlined the new policy at a small event in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building and later told troops in attendance, “We’re proud of you.”

Many of the 4,000 additional U.S. troops will be military trainers sent to upgrade Afghan forces so that they can eventually dispense with foreign help.

Mr. Obama set goals of 134,000 troops for the Afghan army, a doubling of its current size, and 82,000 for Afghan police, also twice its current effective strength, by 2011.

Afghan experts have argued for even larger Afghan forces.

Bruce Riedel, a former CIA officer and South Asia expert who supervised the policy review, told The Times that “if it looks as though we need to do more, we’ll do more.”

In remarks that could be interpreted as a jab at former President George W. Bush, however, Mr. Obama promised, “We will not blindly stay the course,” and his advisers repeatedly stressed flexibility and ongoing reviews of the policy.

Sen. Charles E. Grassley, Iowa Republican, declared on his Twitter feed it was now Mr. Obama’s war: “Not Bush war any longer.”

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