US Military Academy

The West Point Speech

On Tuesday, Barack Obama, the US president will go before cadets at the US Military Academy at West Point - and a national and worldwide television audience - to announce his plan and strategy for Afghanistan.

He’s expected to say he will send something in the order of 30,000 extra troops, perhaps as many as 35,000. He is also going to outline a plan and a time frame for turning responsibility for the fight against the Taliban and al-Qaeda over to the shaky and corrupt Afghan government, so that American forces can be brought home eventually.

I think the actual number of troops is not the important thing. 30,000 or 40,000 or even 100,000 or 300,000 troops would still be too few, if the goal is to entirely wipe out the Taliban. What is important is how Obama conveys to the American people the mission in Afghanistan.