Obama to announce new Afghanistan plan

US President Barack Obama is minutes away from announcing his redrawn battle plan for Afghanistan. The plan will likely include what the military says is a roughly 50 percent increase in US forces.

Following weeks of consultation with his aides, President Obama will finally unveil his new Afghanistan strategy at the US Military Academy, West Point.

Robert Gibbs, White House Spokesman, said, "I think what the president is going to do is set forward a strategy, set forward some benchmarks that he believes we can meet, understanding that we're not going to be there forever and this can't be open-ended. We have to talk about transitioning our forces out and putting forward the Afghans to provide their own security and stability."

Much attention will be paid to the number of new troops the President will order.

It is expected that Obama will settle on a deployment of about 30-thousand to 35-thousand.

That will bring US forces to above 100-thousand.

But the number is less than the additional troops required by the top US and NATO commander in Afghanistan Stanley McCrystal. He had asked for about 40-thousand.

Some are already lining up against the troops' surge, in part because of the surging cost.