U.S. to speed up troop deployment to Afghanistan

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The United States will speed up its escalation of troops to Afghanistan, sending the first contingent within weeks, officials announced this morning.

With President Obama set to address the nation tonight from West Point on his new Afghanistan policy, press secretary Robert Gibbs took to the airways this morning to smooth the way for the president’s more formal and complete announcement.

“We’re going to accelerate going after Al Qaeda and its extremist allies, we’re going to accelerate the training of an Afghan security force, the police and an army, because we want to, as quickly as possible, transition the security of the Afghan people over to those national security forces in Afghanistan,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said on CBS.

Obama will send 30,000 to 35,000 more troops to Afghanistan, bringing the U.S. involvement to more than 100,000 troops. NATO and other allies have already committed 40,000 troops, with thousands more expected as part of the Obama surge.

Marines are expected to be the first of the new troops. The U.S. deployment is expected to be completed by the end of summer. Pentagon officials had originally said it would take 12 to 18 months to send the new forces.

While much attention has focused on the number of U.S. troops, Gibbs emphasized that Obama will focus on the mission as the president tries to sell his new policy.

“It’s what their mission is,” Gibbs told ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “We’re going to accelerate going after Al Qaeda and its extremist allies. We’ll accelerate the training of an Afghan national security force, a police [force] and an army.”

Gibbs said Obama would lay out an endgame for U.S. involvement.

“We want to — as quickly as possible — transition the security of the Afghan people over to those national security forces in Afghanistan,” Gibbs said. “This can’t be nation-building. It can’t be an open-ended forever commitment.”

Obama, who has taken more than three months to review U.S. policy in Afghanistan, spoke this morning with Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, under pressure for widespread voter fraud in the recent election. There have also been reports of corruption, hindering the acceptance of Karzai government at home and abroad.

“They have to address their problems in governance. They have to address corruption,” Gibbs said on MSNBC.

-- Michael Muskal and Mark Silva

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