PRESS TV:"Obama increases troops in Afghanistan by 40%"

The US president has decided to raise the number of American troops in Afghanistan by some 40 percent, a move that would see Washington deploy another 30,000 soldiers.
In a live televised speech at the US Military Academy at West Point, New York on Tuesday, Barack Obama said the troops would be deployed in the first part of 2010.
“As commander in chief, I have determined that it is in our vital national interest to send an additional 30,000 US troops to Afghanistan,” he told the cadets.
He stated that the fresh troops, who will increase the number of US forces in Afghanistan from 68,000 to 100,000, would focus on targeting the resurgent Taliban, securing key population centers, and training military personnel.
There are no estimates available on the number of civilians who have been killed in Afghanistan since the 2001 US-led invasion, but according to UN figures, over 1,500 Afghans have been killed just in the first half of 2009.
Furthermore, countless reports by international press, including leading US media, indicate that the top al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders such as Osama Bin Laden and Mullah Mohammed Omar all reside in Pakistan, not Afghanistan.
During the past eight years, the US has made no substantial effort to detain these top leaders in Pakistan, while Britain even presented an initiative for dialogue with the militants and a possible compromise...

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