Anti-war groups turn against Barack Obama after Afghanistan surge

Anti-war protesters are planning an autumn campaign against President Barack Obama’s extension of operations in Afghanistan to coincide with the eighth anniversary of the first bombing of the Taliban.

There is rising disillusion among liberals and peace activists that a president who built his campaign on his opposition to the war in Iraq now views America’s other conflict as a “war of necessity”.

Mr Obama has already added 21,000 extra troops to the 38,000 stationed there by George W Bush. In the next few weeks, he is likely to receive requests from the Pentagon for more when Gen Stanley McChrystal, the US commander in Afghanisan, submits a report on the progress of the war.

It is expected to paint a grim picture and offer the president three options for action: increase troop numbers dramatically, increase them less dramatically or leave them as they are.