The War in Afghanistan

The War in Afghanistan http://livingstories.googlelabs.com/lsps/afghanistan <div style="padding: 5px; float: right; width: 150px;"> <img src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/12/01/world/middleeast/7030_1_obamaspeechafghanistan_190x126.jpg" width="160"> Video: The President's Afghanistan Address </div> Summary: In a major policy move, President Obama has committed 30,000 more United States troops to Afghanistan but added he would begin drawing out American forces there starting in July 2011. But administration officials have since scrambled to defend that withdrawal schedule. Some lawmakers voiced skepticism. Mr. Obama's decision is likely to prove to be a defining one for his administration. The policy also leaves unanswered the question of whether Afghan President Hamid Karzai will met the challenge and how to respond if he does not. The strategy's success may ultimately be determined in an unruly region that straddles the Afghan-Pakastani border.  In making his decision, Mr. Obama chose from among three options that would have sent as few as 10,000 troops, as advocated by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., to as many as 40,000 under a proposal by Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top American and NATO commander in Afghanistan. The president has faced vocal criticism from senior Congressional Democrats over the war’s cost, the size of the United States troop commitment and the reliability of America’s allies.Some top advisors have expressed reservations about deploying additional troops while others are asking for more troops Mr. Obama has declared Afghanistan to be the central front in the war on terrorism and called the country's presidential election the most important event in Afghanistan in 2009. That country's recent president election was rife with fraud. Under heavy international pressure, President Karzai conceded Oct. 20 that he had fallen short of a first-round victory and agreed to hold a runoff election with his top challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, on Nov. 7. But the runoff was scrapped when Dr. Abdullah withdrew from the race Nov. 1, accusing government of corruption and electoral fraud. Afghan officials on the following day declared Mr. Karzai the winner. In an unannounced visit to Kabul on Nov. 18, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton warned Mr. Karzai that future civilian aid would depend in part on how his government performed in areas like developing an effective army and curbing cronyism, according to an American official. The trip, coming on the eve of Mr. Karzai's inauguration for a second term, represented part of a broader effort by the Obama administration to tie the anticipated troop increase in Afghanistan to more effective efforts by its partners in the region.