Obama seeks to rally support for Afghan troop plan

FORT DRUM, New York (Reuters) - President Barack Obama defended his planned Afghanistan troop drawdown on Thursday, as he sought to rally support during a visit to an Army base in upstate New York.

Speaking to about 200 soldiers, Obama stood by the blueprint he unveiled in a televised speech on Wednesday to remove 10,000 troops from Afghanistan this year and a total of 33,000 by the end of next summer, a pace some top military officials have said is too aggressive.

"We have turned a corner where we can begin to bring back some of our troops. We're not doing it precipitously. We're going to do it in a steady way to make sure that the gains that all of you helped to bring about are going to be sustained," he told soldiers of the 10th Mountain Division, who listened mostly in silence.

Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and General David Petraeus, top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, said in congressional testimony that Obama's drawdown was riskier than they recommended but that they backed the strategy to start winding down the nearly decade-old war.

U.S. public support for the war has fallen sharply since U.S. special forces killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in neighboring Pakistan.

As he seeks re-election in 2012, Obama wants to show Americans he is crafting an endgame for the costly war and putting his focus on the troubled economy and high unemployment, the U.S. electorate's chief concerns.

Some 25.3 million Americans watched Obama's speech on Wednesday, which was broadcast live on nine U.S. television networks, ratings company Nielsen said on Thursday.

War-weariness has also started to set in among many U.S. troops and their loved ones.

The advocacy group Military Families Speak Out said in response to Obama's Wednesday announcement that the United States should get out of Afghanistan even more quickly.

"While we applaud any service members returning home, this plan maintains 70,000 troops on the ground in Afghanistan through 2014," the group said on its website.

"Three more years is unacceptable for a military community who have already suffered through 10 years of war, multiple deployments, deteriorating troop morale, and extremely high rates of suicide and post-traumatic stress."

More than 1,600 U.S. troops have been killed in Afghanistan, according to official figures.

(Additional reporting by Matt Spetalnick in Washington and Jill Serjeant in Los Angeles; Editing by Paul Simao)