Report: President likely to announce 34k troop increase to Afghanistan

President Barack Obama will reportedly announce next week a new Afghan war strategy that includes a modest, 34,000-strong troop increase, according to unnamed White House sources who spoke Monday with McClatchy reporters.

The president is also likely to present that plan to the American people in a prime time address next Tuesday, Dec. 1, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said.

The proposal, in its current form, would authorize the deployment of slightly fewer troops than the number Gen. Stanley McChrystal first requested back in September.

However, the new strategy reportedly includes periodic "off ramps" that permit the president the ability to change troop levels as needed. Additionally, White House officials plan to expand their campaign in the coming weeks to solicit military support from its allies, especially NATO countries, according to McClatchy.

Although White House officials have not confirmed most of these details on the record, Gibbs did signal on Monday that the president had reached an actionable decision.

“After completing a rigorous final meeting, President Obama has the information he wants and needs to make his decision and he will announce that decision within days,” Gibbs said before the president's war council convened for its ninth meeting on Afghanistan.

The president, himself, echoed that on Tuesday, noting that he would offer more information after the Thanksgiving holiday.

"After eight years, some of those years in which we did not have either the resources or the strategy to get the job done, it is my intention to finish the job," Obama said at a press conference with the Indian prime minister. "And I feel very confident that when the American people hear a clear rationale for what we're doing there and how we intend to achieve our goals that they will be supportive."

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