McChrystal: Obama's plan a 'clear commitment'

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McChrystal: Obama's plan a 'clear commitment'
By Dianna Cahn, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Thursday, December 3, 2009

KABUL — President Barack Obama’s decision to bolster the flagging Afghanistan fight with 30,000 more troops marks a significant and clear way forward in this nine-year battle, the top U.S. commander in the country said Wednesday.

Calling the announcement a “clear commitment to the way ahead,” Gen. Stanley McChrystal said the extra troops will allow U.S. and coalition forces to establish security in more of the insurgent-controlled areas of the country while allowing coalition troops to train and build up Afghan security forces to ultimately take over.

“We have clarity of our mission as was outlined by the president this morning,” McChrystal told his staff in Kabul in a special briefing that he would be repeating to staff at other bases around the country throughout the day. “We have clarity about what it is we are here to do, and we are here to provide the government of Afghanistan and our Afghan partners time, space and capability to defend their sovereignty. And standing between them and that is an insurgency that we have been fighting and we will now take on with even greater vigor.”

But he warned that while an end goal is attainable, it won’t come easy.

“It isn’t free. It isn’t easy. There will be a lot of people who will question whether we can do it. There are some who will question whether we should do it. But nobody should question from today on whether we will do it,” he said.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=66418