============================ The increase would include at least three Army brigades and a single, larger Marine Corps contingent, officials said. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the decision is not final. ================================== It's going to be very important to recognize that the Afghan people ultimately are going to have to provide for their own security, and so we'll be discussing that process whereby Afghan security forces are properly trained and equipped to do the job, Obama said. Obama must not only sell his plan to the public, but to foreign allies whose additional resources the White House wants in Afghanistan. The president bluntly said Tuesday he would talk in his announcement about the obligations of our international partners in this process. The timing of his address is timed in part to come before a NATO foreign ministers meeting, taking place in Brussels, Belgium, at the end of next week. Obama also must pitch his plan to Capitol Hill, where lawmakers will be asked to fund the effort. Among those likely to take part in congressional hearings are Obama's top commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, as well as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry. All four were among about 20 officials and advisers participating in the president's final deliberations Monday night — one of the biggest groups gathered for these sessions in some time. It is in our strategic interests, in our national security interest to make sure that al-Qaida and its extremist allies cannot operate effectively in those areas, Obama said of the Afghan war. We are going to dismantle and degrade their capabilities and ultimately dismantle and destroy their networks. ===================================== So don't get it in your ancient WWII movie geriatric minds that winning a combat war is the purpose of any of this.  We haven't won any of those since WWII.  We are NOT going to take the HILL , we are not going to be wiping out any divisions .  We are not going to be fighting Afghanistan's war.  It is NOT our war.  We simply are hoping the people of Afghanistan will become organized to get al-quida out of their hair and our's and that does not mean killing off the Taliban. The Taliban are a part of the landscape, but they also getting tired of being exploited by al-quida.    This is why I think Holbrooke is saying send in more civilians the civilians are winning the war, because they are helping the people find alternatives , options and giving them hope for a future.  I think you guys all heard the story of the American gal who went over there and opened up a beauty shop and taught the women there to open up their own and they all get together and shoot the shoot as all beauty shops do. They need about 5,000 more folks like her. She made a difference. ======================