Washington (CNN) - President Obama will announce the U.S. troop strategy for Afghanistan in a speech at 8 p.m. ET Tuesday at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Wednesday.
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/10/26/troops.afghanistan.art.jpg caption="President Obama will announce his U.S. troop strategy for Afghanistan on Tuesday."]
In the speech, Obama will explain why the United States is in Afghanistan, its interests there and his decision-making process, Gibbs said, but "the president does not see this as an open-ended engagement.
A leading congressional Democrat, who is the chief proponent of a new tax that would fund future military operations in Afghanistan, suggested Sunday that continuing to fight the Afghan war under current conditions is “a fool’s errand” and, at the same time, said that his tax proposal would create a sense of shared sacrifice that has been missing in the last eight years.
Rep. David Obey, a Democrat from Wisconsin, is expressing serious reservations about the U.S. military effort in Afghanistan – just days before President Obama is expected to announce a substantial increase in U.S. troops in the country.
“The problem is that you can have the best policy in the world, but if you don't have the tools to implement it, it isn't worth a beanbag,” Obey said on CNN’s State of the Union, “And I don't think we have the tools in the Pakistani government and I don't think we have the tools in the Afghan government. And until we do, I think much of what we do is a fool's errand.” Read more
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