White House spokesman Gibbs: Afghan troop deployment to take place on accelerated basis
By APTuesday, December 1, 2009
Gibbs: Deployment to Afghan will be accelerated
WASHINGTON — A White House spokesman says President Barack Obama is ready to lay out an end-game scenario for U.S. involvement in Afghanistan because “we can’t be there forever.”
Robert Gibbs also told MSNBC that Obama’s prime-time West Point speech also will lay out a faster deployment plan than initially envisioned in a war review written by commanding Gen. Stanley McChrystal. Gibbs said the troop build up “will be accelerated. We’re going to get in there quickly” and transfer responsibility for security to the Afghans quickly. Gibbs called that “an end game” for the American commitment. He said, “They’re going to get in sooner, quite frankly, than the original assessment asked them to get in” — less than the two year deployment that was once under consideration.
