Congress may hold nose but will support Obama’s new strategy
Despite their concerns, it now seems increasingly likely Congress will back Obama's plan to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan, after reassurances it’s not an open-ended commitment. Obama’s surge-and-exit strategy is the biggest expansion of the Afghan war since it started, but critics now concede Obama will succeed in getting Congress to fund the extra $30 billion or $40 billion. Anti-war Democrats who came to office on the backs of voter anger at the Bush Iraq strategy are sceptical a troop build-up is necessary or will work, but party leaders said it is unlikely any Democrats would try to block the deployments or the budget to support it. Critical for Democratic support is the July 2011 deadline Obama has set to begin troop withdrawals. For more, read the AP
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