WASHINGTON -President Barack Obama ordered his first major deployment of U.S. combat troops yesterday, sending 17,000 more soldiers and Marines to Afghanistan for what he described as an urgent bid to stabilize a deteriorating and neglected country.
The deployment marks a sizable intensification of the war effort and a new commitment of U.S. resources to the Afghanistan campaign.
In a statement announcing the troop increase, Obama directed veiled criticism at the Bush administration, noting that the request for the troops from Gen. David McKiernan, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, had been pending for months.
"This increase is necessary to stabilize a deteriorating situation in Afghanistan, which has not received the strategic attention, direction and resources it urgently requires," Obama said.
The troops will be used in Afghanistan, but in a statement announcing the troop increase, Obama mentioned the threat of al-Qaida from elsewhere in the region, including havens in Pakistan.
Just this week, the government in Islamabad struck a deal that was widely seen as ceding much of its authority to militants in the region known as Swat. Such developments have prompted fears that forays by militants into Afghanistan could accelerate in the spring and summer.
The deployment announced yesterday is "focused on Afghanistan, but clearly the situation in the region is taken into account," said a senior Obama administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Military officials have been careful not to call the buildup a "surge," the term the Bush administration used for the troop buildup in Iraq in 2007, noting that the escalation in Afghanistan could be needed for years.
But senior defense officials said that they believe they must quickly begin to show results in Afghanistan, roll back Taliban advances and bring a measure of stability to the country.
"These troops are going to help us counter Taliban territorial advances, deny safe havens and create security for Afghan civilians," the senior administration official said.
The official also indicated that the deployment will expand the number of U.S. special operations forces in the country. Their role will be principally "to help train Afghans," the official said, but he added that "they're going to be involved in supplementing and supporting ongoing activities."
