"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," President Barack Obama announced in a speech televised from the West Point military academy in New York state last night.
To make clear that the escalation is temporary, Mr Obama immediately added: "After 18 months, our troops will begin to come home." Later in his speech, the President explained that by accelerating the handover of responsibility to Afghan security forces, US troops would be able to begin leaving by July 2011, "taking into account conditions on the ground."
Though the US would continue to "advise and assist" the Afghan forces, "It will be clear to the Afghan government - and more importantly, to the Afghan people - that they will ultimately be responsible for their own country."
Mr Obama began by reminding Americans that "we did not ask for this fight." It was started by al-Qaeda, a group "who have distorted and defiled Islam", on September 11th, 2001. Al-Qaeda was harboured in Afghanistan by the Taliban "a ruthless, repressive and radical movement that seized control of that country...
Nato and the United Nations Security Council supported the war in Afghanistan, which was launched "under the banner of domestic unity and international legitimacy."
Since the presidential campaign, Mr Obama has maintained that the Iraq war was a "stupid war" while Afghanistan was "the necessary war".
He returned to the theme last night, lamenting that since 2003, "the Iraq war drew the dominant share of our troops...and...caused substantial rifts between America and much of the world." The audience of military officers and West Point cadets applauded when he reiterated that combat brigades will leave Iraq "by the end of next summer" and "all of our troops by the end of 2011."
The Afghan war "is not lost," Mr Obama said, building his case for the troop increase, but "the status quo is not sustainable".
Responding to critics like the former vice president Dick Cheney, who accused him of "dithering" during the three-month strategic review of the Afghan war, the president pointed out that "there has never been an option before me that called for troop deployments before 2010, so there has been no delay or denial of resources necessary for the conduct of the war."
Mr Obama said he has measured the human cost of war, signing condolence letters to the families of dead soldiers, visiting the wounded in hospital, travelling to Dover Air Force Base to meet the caskets of 18 Americans killed in Afghanistan. "I do not make this decision lightly," he repeated twice.
The president alluded mysteriously to "new attacks...being plotted as I speak" and said US authorities have recently caught extremists in the US "who were sent here from the border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan to commit new acts of terror".
The US was not alone, Mr Obama stressed. Since 9/11, al-Qaeda has struck in London, Amman and Bali. He repeated his now familiar '3-D' pledge to "disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-Qaeda".
The US has three objectives in Afghanistan, Mr Obama said: "a military strategy that will break the Taliban's momentum", a civilian strategy that should strengthen the Afghan government, and to fully recognise the importance of the US partnership with Pakistan.
"The days of providing a blank check (to Afghan officials) are over," he said. "We expect those who are ineffective or corrupt to be held accountable."
Addressing the people of Afghanistan directly, Mr Obama said the US had "no interest in occupying your country." Instead, the ultimate goal was "a lasting friendship in which America is your partner, and never your patron".
Mr Obama sought to refute the Vietnam parallel used by liberal Americans, saying "unlike Vietnam, we are joined by a broad coalition of 43 nations that recognises the legitimacy of our action. Unlike Vietnam, we are not facing a broad-based popular insurgency. And most importantly, unlike Vietnam, the American people were viciously attacked from Afghanistan."
Mr Obama's critics claim he is constantly apologising for his country's past misdeeds. But the president struck a patriotic note last night, insisting the US has underwritten global security for over six decades. Americans are "heirs to a noble struggle for freedom... part of an unbroken line of sacrifice that has made government of the people, by the people, and for the people a reality on this Earth."
The president deplored the "rancour and cynicism and partisanship that has in recent times poisoned our national discourse". The US was united when the war began, he recalled. He won the loudest applause from his military audience when he said: "I refuse to accept the notion that we cannot summon that unity again."
