4 months ago
WASHINGTON, DC - President Obama is set to announce his next step in the ongoing war in Afghanistan, according to ABC News.
The president will deliver his decision in a prime-time address, next Tuesday, December 1.
The president told aides he has a "pretty good idea of where I want to go," a senior White House official told ABC News.
Though the president has yet to pull the final trigger, officials expect him to select a strategy of sending approximately 34,000 additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan, officials said. Troops would begin deploying early next year. NATO is also expected to kick in troops, maybe 5,000 to 10,000. There is a NATO force conference in early December.
The strategy will have benchmarks measuring Afghanistan's political and military progress, and if those standards are not met, there are exit strategies for the withdrawal of US troops that can and will be enacted.
The last three war council meetings have "not been just about sending more troops in, they've been about getting them out," the official says.
The announcement is expected to be followed by lobbying and testimony on Capitol Hill by Gen. Stanley McChrystal, U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen.
Budget officials say the overall average cost for sending new troops to Afghanistan works out to about $1 million per troop.
ABC News and KXTV/News10
