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Obama to speak Monday at VFW convention

PHOENIX — A commander in chief fighting two wars, President Barack Obama plans to thank veterans for their service on Monday while pressing his commitments to wind down the Iraq war and redouble efforts in Afghanistan.

The president is slated to address members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars gathered in Arizona at the organization’s annual convention.

“He’ll talk about where we are currently in both those two conflicts. He’ll talk about what we owe the men and women in uniform” as well as “their contributions to the betterment of those two countries,” said White House press secretary Robert Gibbs.

Obama has made Afghanistan, which the United States invaded in October 2001 to hunt for Osama bin Laden, one of his top foreign policy priorities. But his administration is grappling with next steps there as it seeks to disentangle 130,000 American troops from Iraq.

The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, is mapping out a revised war plan that he will send to Obama after elections in Afghanistan slated for this week. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said that report will not contain a request to expand the U.S. fighting force, and Gibbs said Obama will not address troop strength or lay out next steps in his speech.

There are 62,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, and another 6,000 are headed there by the end of the year.

Gibbs said he also expects the president to discuss his defense budget and decisions such as “whether or not we’re going to fund expensive weapons programs the Pentagon says we don’t need, or give our men and women fighting in those two dangerous places in the world and other places the resources they need.”

Gates wants to change the way the Defense Department does business. He’s trying to kill unnecessary or financially troubled weapons systems that siphon money away from the troops and gear needed in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Over the objections of some lawmakers who fear their states will lose jobs, the Pentagon chief wants to end production of the high-priced F-22 jet fighter and an aircraft engine project, expensive projects that he says the military doesn’t need.

Obama’s speech comes at the end of a four-day, four-state trip to the West that was part family vacation, part presidential business. He held a pair of town hall events to promote his plan to overhaul the nation’s health care, and his family visited Yellowstone and Grand Canyon national parks.