Request for more troops very soon
Pepe Silvia
Posts: 3,758
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0909/27173.html
Request for more troops very soon
The nation’s top military leader told the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday that top Pentagon officials will likely support a request that will come “very soon” for additional troops for the war Afghanistan.
Though Adm. Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has not yet seen a formal request for more U.S. troops, the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, recently completed an assessment of progress in Afghanistan that recommended revising how the United States implements its war-fighting strategies there. Many analysts said McChrystal’s report was a precursor to a request for more soldiers.
And after hearing those recommendations, Mullen said Tuesday, he concluded that “a properly resourced counter-insurgency probably means more troops.”
He elaborated, saying that during the war in Iraq, the nation learned valuable lessons about fighting counterinsurgencies, including that those campaigns needed to be “properly resourced.” And the fight in Afghanistan has been shortchanged for the last eight years, he said.
In Afghanistan, Mullen said, he and the service chiefs, McChrystal and Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of Central Command, support waging a classic “properly resourced” counterinsurgency.
“You can’t do that from offshore, and you can’t do that by just killing the bad guys. You have to be there,” Mullen said. “This is Gen. McCrystal’s view and my view and that of Gen. Petraeus and the Joint Chiefs.”
Sen. John McCain, the committee’s ranking member, who backed a surge of U.S. forces in Iraq, said he now wants to see that strategy replicated in Afghanistan.
“We will need more combat troops in Afghanistan – not less,” McCain said.
Request for more troops very soon
The nation’s top military leader told the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday that top Pentagon officials will likely support a request that will come “very soon” for additional troops for the war Afghanistan.
Though Adm. Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has not yet seen a formal request for more U.S. troops, the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, recently completed an assessment of progress in Afghanistan that recommended revising how the United States implements its war-fighting strategies there. Many analysts said McChrystal’s report was a precursor to a request for more soldiers.
And after hearing those recommendations, Mullen said Tuesday, he concluded that “a properly resourced counter-insurgency probably means more troops.”
He elaborated, saying that during the war in Iraq, the nation learned valuable lessons about fighting counterinsurgencies, including that those campaigns needed to be “properly resourced.” And the fight in Afghanistan has been shortchanged for the last eight years, he said.
In Afghanistan, Mullen said, he and the service chiefs, McChrystal and Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of Central Command, support waging a classic “properly resourced” counterinsurgency.
“You can’t do that from offshore, and you can’t do that by just killing the bad guys. You have to be there,” Mullen said. “This is Gen. McCrystal’s view and my view and that of Gen. Petraeus and the Joint Chiefs.”
Sen. John McCain, the committee’s ranking member, who backed a surge of U.S. forces in Iraq, said he now wants to see that strategy replicated in Afghanistan.
“We will need more combat troops in Afghanistan – not less,” McCain said.
don't compete; coexist
what are you but my reflection? who am i to judge or strike you down?
"I will promise you this, that if we have not gotten our troops out by the time I am president, it is the first thing I will do. I will get our troops home. We will bring an end to this war. You can take that to the bank." - Barack Obama
when you told me 'if you can't beat 'em, join 'em'
i was thinkin 'death before dishonor'
what are you but my reflection? who am i to judge or strike you down?
"I will promise you this, that if we have not gotten our troops out by the time I am president, it is the first thing I will do. I will get our troops home. We will bring an end to this war. You can take that to the bank." - Barack Obama
when you told me 'if you can't beat 'em, join 'em'
i was thinkin 'death before dishonor'
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