The White House says President Barack Obama is placing heavy emphasis on how the United States eventually will withdraw from Afghanistan even as he plans to announce a troop increase next week.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Wednesday that the United States is in its ninth year of military involvement in Afghanistan and "we are not going to be there another eight or nine years."
Gibbs says Obama's recent meetings with military advisers have often focused on how to train Afghanistan's police and army so they can secure and hold areas taken from the Taliban after U.S. forces are gone.
Obama will address the nation Tuesday night on his Afghan strategy from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He will brief key members of Congress earlier that day. |