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Barack Obama's announcement of a new U.S. strategy in Afghanistan marks a significant turn of events in the nasty war against the Taliban and al-Qaeda. It also means dramatic changes for the Canadian war in Kandahar.

The most significant aspect of the President's announcement was that he made it. He is now staking his own reputation, as well as his country's, to the Afghan conflict, and it is a very large gamble indeed.

The Bush administration left the American giant disabled in many ways. The United States is bogged down in a continuing insurgency in Iraq and losing an insurgency in Afghanistan. Despite U.S. efforts, Iran is closing in on nuclear capability and is asserting power in Lebanon, Syria, Gaza and Sudan. It holds a sword of Damocles over the Persian Gulf states, Saudi Arabia and even Egypt. Washington has essentially failed to mobilize more than a handful of NATO countries (Canada among them) to defend the Karzai government in Kabul.

The growth of China as a significant military and economic power has already challenged American pre-eminence in Southeast Asia, while the virtual collapse of the American economy has put the U.S. dollar in jeopardy as the world's only true reserve currency.

America's global leadership - economic, financial, diplomatic and military - is imperilled. If the United States loses in Afghanistan, its power will enter its twilight.

Let no one believe that the plan laid out by Mr. Obama is doomed to failure. If nothing else, the impact of 21,000 troops in southern and eastern Afghanistan will seriously hinder the Taliban. The U.S. forces will be mobile, and will cover vast areas of Kandahar, Helmand and Zabul provinces. They will take over areas of Kandahar where the Canadians have had little or no presence. The British, too, are likely to pour another 4,000 troops into Helmand, bringing their contingent to 12,000.

These additional forces will be enough to take and hold many of the key towns and villages that have provided the Taliban with their logistical and supply bases. Doing so will finally provide ongoing security for the local population, most of whom do not favour the Taliban but have been coerced by them into neutralism at best, reluctant co-operation at worst.

The extra troops, however, are not the linchpin of Mr. Obama's new strategy. They will provide the security to buy the time necessary for a concerted battle against corruption in the Karzai government, a substantial effort to destroy the drug trade that finances the Taliban, and a massive new campaign to attack poverty and unemployment in western Pakistan. Although not mentioned in last week's speech, there also will be increased attacks by U.S. unmanned air assets against the Taliban and al-Qaeda targets in western Pakistan and an all-out effort to prompt (and probably to help) the Pakistani government destroy the link between Pakistan's intelligence service and the Taliban.

The ultimate objective of the campaign has also been redefined. It is not to establish some sort of fanciful liberal democracy in Afghanistan but to prepare Afghan security forces so that, at some point, a functional and representative government in Kabul will be able to defend itself.

All these measures will have an immediate impact on Canada in Kandahar.

More U.S. and British troops will allow the Canadian Forces to focus their limited combat power on Kandahar city, the dangerous Zhari and Panjwai districts to the west, and possibly the Arghandab district to the north. The additional U.S. and British troops in Helmand will make it much harder for the Taliban to muster forces in areas far from Canadian reach. It will also be much harder for the Taliban to move men and supplies across the border from Pakistan.

Canadians will still hold the key to the region - Kandahar city - but the Americans and British will guard the outlying area. The United States will also impose unity of command in Regional Command South that will allow the commander to effectively co-ordinate the combined combat power of the entire region - six provinces spanning southern Afghanistan between Pakistan and Iran. Unity of command has been sorely missing from the very beginning of the renewed Taliban insurgency.

There is one other factor that may prove helpful in this fight. Canadians have largely seen the war in Afghanistan through a straw. Many have been totally unaware of the presence of large numbers of U.S. and British troops - and casualties - in this war, let alone soldiers from countries such as Poland, the Netherlands, Denmark, Australia and now France. With an extra 21,000 U.S. and 4,000 British troops, only the most myopic Canadians will fail to see that Canada is only one piece of a very large campaign.

David Bercuson is director of the Centre for Military and Strategic Studies at the University of Calgary.