WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Barack Obama intends to sign off on Pentagon plans to send up to 30,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan to help buy time for the new administration to reappraise the war effort, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday.
The incoming administration does not anticipate that the new deployment would significantly change the direction of the conflict, the newspaper said.
Obama campaigned on a promised to "finish the job" in Afghanistan and said he would increase the U.S. military presence there. However, since the November election, he has been flooded with dire assessments of the war, the Post said.
"We have no strategic plan. We never had one," the newspaper quoted a senior U.S. military commander as saying about the Bush years.
Obama's first order of business will be to "explain to the American people what the mission is" in Afghanistan, the official told the newspaper.
Senior Obama team members and Bush administration officials interviewed for the article spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the presidential transition, the Post said.
A retired senior officer with long Afghan experience and ties to the Obama team was quoted as saying that they were going to have to agree on a set of options and a decision on a single strategy. "It's going to require a much more complex assessment by Obama," the source said.
The new administration says it will not be rushed into a decision on Afghanistan.
"We are taking a long, hard look at these issues now," a transition adviser told the newspaperfor more information: http://uk.reuters.com/article/usPoliticsNews/idUKTRE50C1B620090113
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