Posted on 09/15/2009 10:16:42 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States will probably need to deploy more troops to Afghanistan despite almost doubling the size of its force there this year, the top U.S. military officer said on Tuesday.
The assessment by Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was the clearest signal yet that commanders will tell President Barack Obama in the coming weeks that they need extra forces to defeat Taliban insurgents.
"A properly resourced counterinsurgency probably means more forces. And, without question, more time and more commitment to the protection of the Afghan people and to the development of good governance," Mullen said.
Mullen did not say how many more forces would be required but he said he expected a request in the next couple of weeks from U.S. Army General Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan.
Testifying before the U.S. Senate's Armed Services Committee, Mullen stressed the United States faced a race against the clock to reverse its fortunes in Afghanistan, where insurgent violence has reached its highest level since the Taliban was ousted from power in late 2001.
"I have a sense of urgency about this. I worry a great deal that the clock is moving very rapidly," he said.
The United States currently has 62,000 troops in Afghanistan and that figure is expected to rise to 68,000 by the end of the year. There were around 32,000 U.S. troops in the country at the start of the year.
There are also some 38,000 troops from other nations -- mainly NATO allies -- in Afghanistan.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
A U.S. Marine from Delta Company of 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion watches as a U.S. Marine helicopter lands near a base near the town of Khan Neshin in Rig district of Helmand province, southern Afghanistan September 13, 2009. REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic
It’s a quagmire. What would victory look like anyway? Is there an exit strategy?
US soldiers patrolling a village in the Baraki Barak district of Logar Province, Afghanistan, in August. The top US military officer warned on Tuesday that more US troops will probably have to go to Afghanistan to quash Taliban fighters and called for NATO to send more trainers to shape Afghan forces. (AFP/File/Manan Vatsyayana)
To what end?????? We have a President that, most likely, doesn’t want to win this war nor does he know how. Get out of there now.
VN replay. Supplies, insurgents, civilian areas and shooting first off limits. Thank God we have a warrior class that kicks butt when allowed and goes back for more.
More troops is not a good idea if the politicians don’t want to win and don’t have a phased plan to get there. Lots of good people will die and for what?
Define the mission.
Accomplish it.
Get out of there as soon as possible.
Just the simple act of removing the arrogantly stupid ROE and letting the generals fight the war we could do it with the forces in theatre. I seem to remember it was less than we have there now when we chased them out of the country and into Pakistan. Basically let the special ops guys do what they do best with their equivelant of a very large can of RAID!
Please NO!!! Something tells me ZERO Hussein is sending all our troops so he can raise up his own here.
I think the biggest threat to our troops is this administration...
No arguement here.
They can’t define it, let alone win it.
It’s all a political war - the good war, Obama’s war, the Dims’ war, the war we ought to have fought INSTEAD OF IRAQ.
Like Iraq, winning would mean building a non-sectarian, liberal, Western-style nation. Ain’t gonna happen.
This is beginning to feel like 1964-1965 with Obama playing the role of LBJ.
I agree. Let the good guys do what the good guys do best.
NO! I refuse to “use” our youth as “human sacrifices” for Obama’s war on “man-made disasters”.
We have a Commander-in-Chief ..... that is anti war...RUNNING A WAR!!!!!!!!!
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