WASHINGTON — President Obama will reveal his plan for the war in Afghanistan — including an exit strategy — at West Point next week, aides said yesterday
Obama is likely to announce in his televised speech from the US Military Academy at 8 p.m. on Tuesday that he will send another 32,000 to 35,000 troops — shy of the 40,000 requested by the top general in Afghanistan, Stanley McChrystal, officials said.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said part of Obama’s strategy would include a plan for withdrawing troops, and that the United States won’t have a military presence in the country in another eight or nine years.
“That is imperative — that is imperative in this strategy,” Gibbs told reporters.
“The president does not see this as an open-ended engagement. Our time there will be limited, and I think that’s important for people to understand.”
Gibbs said Obama has been meeting with advisers “in order to get a strategy that gets this right, so that this can ultimately be handed off, and the responsibility for security of the Afghan country can rest and lie with the Afghans.”