On the eve of a momunental speech from the president, he huddled privately with Australian prime minister, Kevin Rudd, who has about 1,500 troops in Afghanistan and placed calls to the leaders of Italy, France, Russia, Great Britain and Denmark. All aimed at showing the war is not just a bottomless pit for the US.

huddle: to sit or stand with a small group of people in order to discuss something privately (与某人私下讨论)
bottomless pit： 无底洞

"This is not an open-ended commitment that we are there to partner with the Afghans to train the Afghan national security forces."

open-ended可以有两种解释，一种是‘没有限制的'，另一种是‘没有时间限制的'。 这里应该是解释为后一种。

But senior officials say the president will send about 30,000 more US troops while it's unclear how many new troops allies will send and how quickly Afghanistan can stand on its own.

"The key element here is not just more troops. The key element is shifting the operations to the Afghanis. And if that can be done and I would support the president."

In a CNN interview this month, the president said he will focus on an end game, but it was telling he hedged on whether president Hamid Karzai is a reliable partner.

hedge: to avoid giving a direct answer to a question 不予证明回答

"You trust president Karzai?"
"You know, I think that president Karzai has served his country in important ways. He has some strengths, but he's got some weaknesses."

And how the president pay for his second escalation of the war?

Powerful Republican David Obey is turning up the heat on Mr. Obama by pushing a war tax to fund the new troops.

turn up the heat on: 这里的heat是‘strong pressure on someone'的意思，所以这个词组的意思是‘施加压力'。

"I just think that if this war is important enough to engage in the long term, it's important enough to pay for."

An issue the White House will not take a position on.

"Will it be with a new tax or will it be with spending cuts?"
"Well, again, I think those discussions, once the president has a policy and can put a price tag on it, I think you will see those more in earnest. "

Mr. Obama will not be able to duck the cost issue for long. David Obey and other top lawmakers in both parties will be here in the White House Tuesday, just hours before the president's big speech to the nation at West Point. They are likely to press him on this and many other issues, especially with the nation now $14 trillion in debt.

duck这里做动词，解释为‘ to avoid something, especially a difficult or unpleasant duty '。