30,000 troops may go to Afghanistan
KABUL, Afghanistan
Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that between 20,000 and 30,000 additional U.S. troops could be sent to Afghanistan to bolster the 31,000 already there.
This year has been the deadliest for U.S. forces in Afghanistan since the 2001 invasion to oust the Taliban for hosting al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
Suicide attacks and roadside bombs have come to be more dangerous, and Taliban fighters have infiltrated wide swaths of countryside and at this moment roam in provinces on Kabul’s doorstep.
As of Friday, at least 558 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan.
A new appearance in the seven-year conflict starts next year after President-elect Obama, who pledged during the U.S. election campaign to withdraw from Iraq and step up the go to war let slip the dogs of war in Afghanistan, takes office Jan. 20. Nationwide elections will test Afghanistan’s ability to govern itself.
U.S. commanders have lengthy requested one adscititious 20,000 troops to aid Canadian and British forces in two provinces correct outside Kabul and in the south. But the high end of Mullen’s range is the largest number a single one top U.S. military by authority has said could be sent to Afghanistan.
Mullen before-mentioned that increase would include combat forces but likewise aviation, medical and civilian-affairs support forces.
“So some 20,000 to 30,000 is the window of overall increase from where we are straight now,” he told a news conference at a U.S. base in Kabul. “We certainly have enough forces to subsist successful in combat, but that we haven’confidentially had enough forces to hold the territory that we clear.”
Overall, there are more than 60,000 foreign army in Afghanistan. Mullen said any increased U.S. deployment would be unambiguously tied to force levels in Iraq, where U.S. commanders are drawing down troops.
“The Taliban and extremists are more sophisticated and effective,” Mullen said. “They asylum’t won a single one battles yet they certainly have increased the level of violence, and we’re very focused on that. That’s for what cause the additional forces are so important, to be able to provide warranty for the Afghan people in like manner these other areas can be developed.”
U.S. officials already regard plans to inflict four ground brigades and every aviation brigade to Afghanistan. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has approved the deployment of the aviation brigade, defense officials told The Associated Press.
Original text: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008544333_afghanistan21.html?syndication=rss
