Pentagon Moves To Deploy More Troops To Afghanistan

Team Infidel

Forum Spin Doctor
Wall Street Journal
January 15, 2008
Pg. 2
By Yochi J. Dreazen
WASHINGTON -- Defense Secretary Robert Gates has signed off on a proposal to send additional troops to Afghanistan, and a formal Pentagon announcement will be made as early as today, according to people familiar with the matter.
The decision effectively guarantees that 3,200 more Marines will deploy to Afghanistan to bolster the U.S.-led international force there. Mr. Gates will discuss the plan with President Bush before issuing final deployment orders, but an administration official said the president was certain to endorse the proposal when he returns from the Middle East this week.
The deployments, once finalized, will bring the total U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan to about 30,000. That means that U.S. troop levels in both Iraq and Afghanistan will be at or near their highest levels since the start of the two wars.
The move comes amid mounting U.S. concern about deteriorating conditions in Afghanistan, which was rocked yesterday by a suicide bombing at a luxury hotel in Kabul that left at least seven dead, including one American. It also highlights the Bush administration's inability to persuade U.S. allies to send more of their own troops to Afghanistan.
The extra U.S. Marines will be used for two separate missions. About 1,000 will be training the fledgling Afghan national army, a cornerstone of the long-term U.S. exit strategy from the country, and the remaining 2,200 will deploy to southern Afghanistan to battle Taliban militants there, according to an official knowledgeable about the proposal.
The military has begun alerting Marines in North Carolina and California, the official said. The Marines will begin leaving for Afghanistan in coming weeks and should be fully in place by early April, the official said.
The decision to add fresh troops caps a striking shift in the military's thinking about the long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. While conditions in Iraq were deteriorating in recent years, military commanders consoled themselves that Afghanistan was going fairly well. The U.S. forces that invaded the country in 2001 had managed to quickly topple the Taliban and install a relatively popular central government. Violence was low, especially compared to Iraq.
Today, military officials are increasingly positive about Iraq and increasingly worried about Afghanistan. Last year was the deadliest for U.S. and North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces in Afghanistan since the start of the war. Taliban attacks are up sharply, exacting a growing civilian death toll and steadily degrading the reach and popularity of President Hamid Karzai's government.
Compounding the difficulties, the administration has been unable to convince foreign allies to shoulder more of the military burden. Gen. Dan McNeil, the American officer who commands the 41,000-person NATO force, has asked member nations to contribute at least 4,000 more combat troops, but none of the countries has signaled a willingness to do so.
That is forcing the U.S. to fill the void, which frustrates Mr. Gates. When considering the military proposal to send fresh forces to Afghanistan, Mr. Gates told associates that he was deeply concerned about "letting NATO allies off the hook," according to a Pentagon official who works closely with the defense secretary.
"He didn't want to give them a free ride," the official said. "But there really isn't a choice, unfortunately."
 
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