Obama to announce increase in troops to Afghanistan

Barack Obama is set to make the boldest strategic move of his presidency on Tuesday and order a surge of tens of thousands more US troops into an increasingly unpopular war in Afghanistan. Addressinbg the cadets at the prestigious West Point military academy, Obama is expected to announce between 30,000 and 35,000 reinforcements as part of a new Afghan strategy intended in his own words to "finish the job" there. More than eight years after a US-led invasion ousted the Taliban regime after it refused to hand over Osama bin Laden and other Al-Qaeda leaders accused of plotting the September 11 attacks in 2001, the president is also under pressure to lay out an exit strategy in address to the American nation. There were 35,000 American soldiers fighting the Taliban-led insurgency when Obama became president. After an initial boost in February there are now about 68,000. Tuesday's announcement could see troop levels triple under his tenure. Obama will therefore insist the renewed US engagement is neither unlimited nor unconditional and that the cause is clear: to prevent the region from serving as a base for attacks against the United States -- far from the grandiose notion of installing democracy espoused by the Bush administration. He will make the training of Afghan forces imperative and impress upon corruption tainted Afghan President Hamid Karzai, re-elected to a second term after disputed elections in August, the need to improve his governance.