(CNN) -- Americans shouldn't expect to see the 62,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan come home any time soon, no matter who is declared the victor in the country's presidential election. U.S. Marines patrol near Herat, Afghanistan, in July. In fact, the Pentagon is planning to add 6,000 troops by the end of the year. Ballot counting continued Friday, a day after Afghans went to the polls in the nation's second presidential election since the 2001 fall of the Taliban, the strict Islamic theocracy that emerged from the country's civil war in the 1990s. Pre-election polls showed President Hamid Karzai and his former foreign minister, Abdullah Abdullah, as the front-runners. U.S. policy would hold course under either, experts said.
@highlight
NEW: President Obama says U.S. goal remains defeating al Qaeda, its allies
@highlight
U.S. policy to stay course in Afghanistan no matter who wins voting, experts say
@highlight
Pentagon boosting troops in country, where U.S. is spending $4 billion a month
@highlight
Some want U.S. to keep nation stable; others say terrorists will just find other havens
Those who attacked @placeholder on 9/11 are plotting to do so again," Obama said this week.