Barack Obama, Afghanistan

OBAMA FOR USA. President Obama decided in February to send another 17,000 additional troops to Afghanistan, arguably returning America's focus to what he considers the central front against Al Qaeda, after years of distraction in Iraq. In March, he added plans to send another 4,000 troops for the training of Afghanistan's army and national police. But while he is increasing the military presence there, Mr. Obama has also scaled back the American goals in Afghanistan, deciding in March after a strategic review that the effort should be focused on denying Al Qaeda a sanctuary, rather than the vast attempt at nation-building that Mr. Bush had pursued.

The troop plan continues a more modest buildup already begun by President Bush, and it has bipartisan support. Mr. Obama's plans for benchmark goals in fighting Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan, announced in late March, mirror those used by Mr. Bush in Iraq two years ago both to justify a deeper American commitment and prod governments in the region to take more responsibility for quelling the insurgency and building lasting political institutions.

Administration officials said Mr. Obama framed the American commitment as a counterterrorism mission aimed at denying havens for Al Qaeda, with three main goals -- training Afghan security forces, supporting the weak central government in Kabul and securing the population. While the new strategy will call for expanding Afghan security forces more rapidly, it will not explicitly endorse the request from American commanders to increase the national police and army to 400,000.

The 21,000 additional troops will bring the overall American deployment in Afghanistan to about 60,000. But Mr. Obama avoided calling it a "surge" and resisted sending the full reinforcements initially sought by commanders. Instead, Mr. Obama chose to re-evaluate troop levels at a series of specific moments over the next year, officials said. Approaching the issue in increments may be easier to explain to members of Mr. Obama's own party who fear he is getting the country as entangled in Afghanistan as Mr. Bush did in Iraq.

At the same time, Mr. Obama warned Congressional leaders that he would need more than the $50 billion in his budget plan for military operations and development efforts. Asked by lawmakers about the prospect of reconciliation with moderate members of the Taliban, officials said Mr. Obama replied that he wanted to sift out hard-core radicals from those who were fighting simply to earn money.

American officials have repeatedly said that Afghanistan has to make more progress in fighting corruption, curbing the drug trade and sharing power with its regions. The key elements of Mr. Obama's plan, with its more robust combat force, its emphasis on training, and its far-reaching goals, foreshadow an ambitious but risky and costly attempt to unify and stabilize Afghanistan. The diplomatic end of the assignment was handed to Richard C. Holbrooke, the architect of the Balkan peace accords.

On May 11, 2009, the top American commander in Afghanistan, Gen. David D. McKiernan, was forced out in an abrupt shake-up intended to bring a more aggressive and innovative approach to a worsening seven-year war. The move reflects a belief that the war, waged against an increasingly strong Taliban and its supporters across a rugged, sprawling country, is growing ever more complex. His replacement is Lt. Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, a former commander of the Joint Special Operations Command. He served in Afghanistan as chief of staff of military operations in 2001 and 2002 and recently ran all commando operations in Iraq.