President Obama has unveiled his plan to send an additional 30,000 US troops to Afghanistan in the coming months. Obama gave his long-awaited speech before a crowd of 4,000 cadets at the US military academy in West Point.

President Obama: “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. After eighteen months, our troops will begin to come home. These are the resources that we need to seize the initiative, while building the Afghan capacity that can allow for a responsible transition of our forces out of Afghanistan.”

The move will bring the total number of US troops occupying Afghanistan to over 100,000 — more than half of them deployed since Obama took office.