Obama to announce Afghanistan decision within days

By Jeff Mason and Adam Entous

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will announce his decision to send more troops to Afghanistan in days, concluding a 3-month review punctuated by differences in his administration and concerns about corruption in Kabul.

Obama's announcement, expected to come in a presidential television address next Tuesday evening, comes after weeks of study that some critics have denounced as dithering.

Obama must decide whether to add as many as 40,000 troops to an eight-year-old war that began after the September 11 attacks and has begun to try the patience of Americans as the Taliban insurgency has gained strength.

A 30,000-plus troop buildup over the next year has emerged as the leading option among many of the president's top military and national security advisers including Defense Secretary Robert Gates. But a 20,000-plus option is supported by White House officials pushing for a more narrow focus on training Afghan forces.

The president held a two-hour meeting on Monday evening in the White House Situation Room with officials including Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Gates. It was their ninth such meeting on the topic.

"After completing a rigorous final meeting, President Obama has the information he wants and needs to make his decision and he will announce that decision within days," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said in a statement.

A picture of the meeting released by the White House showed budget director Peter Orszag also participated -- a sign that the cost of sending more troops is also being discussed.

Obama's announcement was widely expected to come before a NATO meeting on December 7 in Europe in which alliance members could agree to send thousands of additional trainers.

There are about 110,000 foreign troops, including 68,000 U.S. soldiers, in Afghanistan fighting the Taliban.

Obama has been reviewing war strategy in Afghanistan since Army General Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander there, said in a report that conditions were deteriorating and 40,000 additional troops were needed to quell the insurgency.

Gates, McChrystal, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen and U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry will appear before congressional committees in the days after Obama's announcement to testify about the review and troop buildup.

AMERICANS DIVIDED

Obama faces conflicting pressures on Afghanistan, and differences in his administration reflect that. Biden has been a leading skeptic and Eikenberry, who commanded U.S. troops in Afghanistan in 2006 and 2007, has expressed deep concern about sending more troops until government corruption there abates.

Americans are divided about whether to send more troops. Republicans in Congress insist more troops are needed to roll back a Taliban resurgence, while the president's fellow Democrats in general would like to see the United States find a way out of Afghanistan.

One factor that has complicated the deliberations has been concerns about corruption in Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government. Obama has said he wants to ensure he has a reliable partner there.

Two veteran Democratic lawmakers have called for imposing a "war tax" to pay for a troop increase. The two are David Obey, chairman of the House of Representatives Appropriations Committee, and Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

A congressional aide said that under the idea, families earning less than $150,000 a year would be taxed at 1 percent of their tax rates. The tax would be higher for those in the $150,000-to-$250,000 range and still higher for those making $250,000 or more.

Democratic Senator Daniel Inouye, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, opposed it. "Someone has to demonstrate how it can be done," he said.

Gibbs said it was premature for him to comment.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney told conservative talk radio host Scott Hennen that Obama was taking too long to decide.

"The delay is not cost-free," Cheney said. "Every day that goes by raises doubts in the minds of our friends in the region about what you're going to do, raises doubts in the minds of the troops."

Gibbs defended the president on Monday.

"This is a complicated decision," he said. "I think the American people want the president to take the time to get this decision right, rather than to make a hasty decision."

A Washington Post-ABC News poll last week found that 46 percent of Americans supported a large influx of troops to fight insurgents and train the Afghan military, while 45 percent backed a smaller number of new U.S. forces more narrowly focused on training. (Additional reporting by Andy Sullivan, Kim Dixon, and Caren Bohan; Editing by Eric Beech) (For more Reuters coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan, see: http://www.reuters.com/news/globalcoverage/afghanistanpakistan)