Top General Explores Afghan Troop Cuts, to Make Way for ‘Trigger-Pullers’

Top General Explores Afghan Troop Cuts, to Make Way for ‘Trigger-Pullers’
By Noah Shachtman

KABUL — The talk in military circles may still be about troop increases in Afghanistan, to bolster a difficult, bloody campaign. But the top general there, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, has directed his commanders to come up with proposals to cut manpower, potentially by as much as 20 percent. The idea is to maximize the number of infantrymen and counterinsurgents - and minimize support staff and possibly-extraneous personnel.

“More trigger-pullers, and less of everyone else,” says a military source familiar with McChrystal’s query to his commanders, issued August 7th.

McChrystal had been expected to ask for a significant expansion of boots on the ground in an upcoming assessment on the Afghanistan campaign. Center for Strategic and International Studies analyst Anthony Cordesman, who’s served as a civilian consultant to McChrystal, wrote recently that the Afghanistan fight would require “anywhere from three to nine brigades above the 21,000 additional forces that President Obama approved in the spring of 2009.” In recent days, however, that talk has turned. Instead, any troop increases will be considered after McChrystal’s report is filed and reviewed by the Pentagon and the White House, where there is a strong reluctance to add extra forces. Last January, Defense Secretary Robert Gates told Congress he would be “deeply skeptical” of any plans to further expand U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan beyond the 68,000 already there or scheduled to arrive. “My strong view is that we are not going to succeed simply by piling on more and more troops,” President Obama said.

“The ‘cut 20 percent’ was a direction to identify where cuts could be made, rather than a direction to actually reduce the force,” military spokesperson Lt. Commander Christine Sidenstricker tells Danger Room. “Bottom line is that the resource requirements across the theater currently are under hard analysis, but there have been no final decisions or recommendations on force levels or other resourcing issues.”

McChrystal’s directive is one of several ways that American commanders are looking to increase combat power in Afghanistan, while maintaining the current head count of U.S. troops. The Army recently issued a request for information that explored that possibility of using private security contractors as the primary protective forces on dozen of American outposts. ... http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/08/top-general-explores-afghan-troop-cuts-to-make-way-for-trigger-pullers/

improving the tooth to tail ratio.