Obama gambles his presidency on Afghanistan

What would have been barely thinkable a year ago was by Tuesday night almost déjà vu. In announcing 30,000 new US troops for Afghanistan following three months of leak-riddled deliberation, Barack Obama has with great reluctance created his own analogue of the 21,500 troop surge George W. Bush announced for Iraq almost three years ago.

But there the parallels end. In Mr Bush's case, the military escalation was open-ended. In contrast, Mr Obama said that US forces would begin to withdraw from Afghanistan within a year of the fresh troops having arrived. In announcing his surge, Mr Bush
was going with the grain of his party. Mr Obama is going strongly against the grain of his.
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http://link.ft.com/r/2SRI11/70179/IJFMK/A74SWF/8CXFX/MQ/t

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