2009, The Washington Post WASHINGTON -- President Obama will reveal his new Afghanistan war strategy in a speech Tuesday evening to cadets at West Point, but his most skeptical audience is likely to be the powerful Democrats on Capitol Hill who oppose a troop buildup. Top Democrats have made it clear to Obama that he will not receive a friendly reception should he announce what is considered the leading option: sending 30,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan. The legislators have indicated that a request for more money to finance a beefed-up war effort will be met with frustration and, perhaps, a demand to raise taxes. Even so, Obama appears ready to come close to accepting the recommendation of Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, to add 40,000 more troops to the war effort. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Wednesday that several NATO countries will send an additional 5,000 troops to Afghanistan. Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Wednesday that Obama had not yet informed members of his war council of his decision. On Tuesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., described what she called 'serious unrest' in her caucus over the prospect of another vote to finance billions of dollars for an expanded war. It is, she said, the most difficult vote she can ask of the members of her party. 'We need to know what the mission is, how this is further protecting the American people and is this the best way to do that, especially at a time when there's such serious economic issues here at home,' Pelosi told bloggers on the Tuesday conference call. Pelosi met with Obama at the White House Tuesday and later sat next to him at the state dinner that evening. Her office offered scant insight Wednesday about the White House session. 'The President and the Speaker had a productive meeting,' said Brendan Daly, Pelosi's spokesman. In June, Pelosi strong-armed anti-war Democrats into voting for a $100 billion bill to fund the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. During an interview in July, she recounted her appeal to the lawmakers: 'Will you change your mind and one more time vote for war funding again?' She also promised not to ask again. 'This is the very last time,' she told them. Now, barely five months later, Pelosi and Obama will soon have to go back the war well once more, even as they seek difficult votes from the same Democratic lawmakers on health care reform, climate change legislation and regulation of the financial industry. Those domestic policy efforts are far from settled, but Pelosi has described them only as 'heavy lifts' that were 'nothing' compared to the war votes of the past three years. 'You have to go to somebody who is totally, completely, entirely opposed to war funding, and you need to have them vote on it. And you don't even want to vote on it yourself,' Pelosi recalled in the July interview. Obama plans to brief lawmakers at the White House just hours before he leaves to deliver his West Point speech. The House Committee on Foreign Affairs on Wednesday scheduled a hearing on the president's Afghanistan strategy for Dec. 2, the day after the speech. Among those asked to testify: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen. McChrystal and U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry are also expected to testify next week. Senior aides said the president's first task will be to seek the understanding of an uneasy nation for his new approach to a war that has lasted eight years. Among the reassurances he will offer, they said, is a promise that an end is in sight. 'We are in year nine of our efforts in Afghanistan. We're not going to be there another eight or nine years,' Gibbs said. But members of the party's most liberal wing, such as Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wisconsin, have expressed serious doubts about the overall direction of the president's strategy. Even the Democratic party's more hawkish lawmakers, like Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Armed Services Committee, and Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, have said they have deep reservations about the wisdom of a troop buildup. Because Obama has not formally announced his Afghanistan plan, Republican lawmakers have remained muted in their support for the emerging plan. The Republican approach has largely been to demand that Obama accept the requests of his generals. Several key GOP lawmakers are using the Thanksgiving holiday to visit Kabul, where they are expected to meet with McChrystal in meetings that could serve as bellwethers of Republican thinking on the plan. Researcher Alice Crites contributed to this report. 