The top US battlefield commander said Wednesday that President Barack Obama's 30,000-strong troop increase for the Afghan war would make a huge difference, as the White House prepared to sell the new strategy to Congress. Rising combat deaths and military costs have sapped US public support for the eight-year-old war and Obama's troop increase plan has prompted protests from left-leaning leaders of his Democratic Party ahead of congressional elections next year. Within hours of Obama's speech announcing the extra troops – delivered as Wednesday dawned in Afghanistan – top US and NATO commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal set off on a battlefield tour to rally his forces. Paraphrasing Winston Churchill in a rousing speech by videophone to his commanders, McChrystal called Obama's pledge of reinforcements “the end of the beginning” of the war. But the Taliban, in a statement issued by email, said the increase would only increase their resolve. “This strategy by the enemy will not benefit them,” it said. McChrystal told his commanders the additional forces would at last give them the troops they need to speed up the training of Afghan security forces and protect towns and villages. Training Afghan troops was now their “main effort”, he said. “At the end of the day, the success of this operation will be determined in the minds of the Afghan people,” he said. “It's not the number of people you kill; it's the number of people you convince. It's the number of people that don't get killed. It's the number of houses that are not destroyed. It's the number of children that do get to go to school.” Asked later if he was getting enough new troops, he told reporters: “I think it is going to make a huge difference. I think we'll be in great shape.” Top Obama administration officials were due in Congress later Wednesday where they can expect a grilling from Democrats dubious of escalating the war, and Republicans suspicious of Obama's call for an 18-month timeline to begin withdrawing. In his televised speech Tuesday, Obama said the goal of raising US troop levels to nearly 100,000 was to step up the battle against the Taliban, secure key centres and train Afghan forces so they can take over, allowing for a US withdrawal. “We always wanted to take over the responsibility for the destiny of our nation,” Afghan Defense Minister Gen. Abdul Rahim Wardak told reporters, adding that Obama's speech confirmed that the US wants to help them do that. Major US troop movements are likely to begin in January and all 30,000 should be in place by the end of August, far faster than planners had earlier suggested but in line with McChrystal's request for reinforcements before the summer fighting season. Other NATO members are expected to commit between 5,000 and 7,000 additional troops, although some of them are already deployed as part of the alliance's 42,000
