>>>
begins now.
>>>
good evening. the order went out last night to the
u.s. military
.
over time
another 30,000 americans will be heading to
afghanistan
. tomorrow night, the president using west point instead of the
west wing
as a backdrop, will explain his decision to the country, the result of months of deliberations. it's as serious as the presidency gets, sending america's treasure to a battlefield overseas. they have all volunteered for duty. now they are part of a growing
u.s. military
commitment in
afghanistan
, and it's just one issue after all of this
white house
is dealing with. our chief
white house
correspondent
chuck todd
will start us off tonight. chuck, good evening.
>>
reporter: good evening, brian. while the president's own chief of staff calls this an historic week in what's already an historic year. the president is attempting to tackle two issues that have undone presidencies before, war and the economy. and it begins tomorrow night at west point when the president unveils his plan for the
war in afghanistan
. the president's decision more than doubles the number of troops in
afghanistan
when he took office ten months ago. at an
oval office
meet late sunday afternoon, the president officially gave
military orders
to top military commanders to send approximately 30,000 more
u.s. troops
to
afghanistan
. that brings the total to more than 100,000 troops. when he took office, there were fewer than 40,000.
>>
nobody should underestimate the commitment of a president that has thus far doubled the number of american men and women on the ground in
afghanistan
.
>>
reporter: in a 30 to 40-minute primetime address tuesday night, the president will explain, the mission, it remains unchanged. to dismantle and destroy
al qaeda
and prevent the taliban from creating a safe haven in the
afghanistan
/pakistan region. the
end game
-- specifically, what benchmarks the pakistan and
afghanistan
governments have to meet, including ramping up afghan forces so
u.s. forces
can stand down. and the costs -- aides say he won't avoid the details though how hard it is to find the $30 billion to fund this surge. mr. obama in an nbc interview two weeks ago --
>>
this decision, will it be the decision that ultimately enz the war?
>>
this decision will put us on a path towards ending the war.
>>
reporter: the president's challenge is to reassure the public the war will end soon, while reassuring the world that the u.s. won't leave
afghanistan
too soon.
>>
i'm not sure you can square that circle. the real question here is whether his plan will work, and more than that, whether his plan will work fast enough.
>>
reporter: meanwhile, the rest of the president's week is an attempt to zmon straight to the public he's focused on the growing unemployment problem so he's organizing a day-long job summit for thursday.
>>
this is a
double barrel
week. it is the two biggest challenges he's facing, the
war in afghanistan
and a job situation that just won't go away.
>>
reporter: brian, beyond selling this war to a skeptical public, he also has to explain how he's going to pay for this war. expect secretaries gates and clinton, when they head to
capitol hill
on wednesday and thursday, to get an earful from members of congress who want to know where are you going to find this $30 billion?
>>
chuck todd
, starting us off on this monday night at the
white house
. chuck, thanks.
>>>
the president, again, will address the nation from west point tomorrow night, 8:00
eastern time
, 5:00
pacific time
. of course, we'll be carrying it live here on this nbc station.
>>>
police in
washington state
are
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