US Afghanistan commander requested as many as 60,000 more soldiers

The top-end request for an increase in US troop levels presented to President Barack Obama by Gen. Stanley McChrystal, US and NATO commander in Afghanistan, is substantially larger than the 40,000 previously reported, according to anonymous government sources.

McChrystal has presented Obama with three scenarios for troop deployments in Afghanistan. In one, the US would commit 60,000 more soldiers. In the second—that for which McChrystal has publicly campaigned—the US would deploy 40,000 additional troops. In the third scenario, Obama would send only marginally more soldiers than the 68,000 who will occupy Afghanistan by January 1. McChrystal says that this choice would lead to “mission failure”—i.e., defeat.

Obama is in the midst of a series of cabinet-level meetings in which McChrystal’s request is being discussed, along with a competing proposal that would maintain the current troop levels while relying more on aerial bombardment, targeted assassinations, and a deeper intervention in neighboring Pakistan. Vice President Joe Biden reportedly favors this option.

The debate within the Obama administration over troop levels has reportedly been joined to a larger discussion over whether or not to refocus the mission in Afghanistan from defeating the Taliban to preventing the return of Al Qaeda.

“The Obama administration has concluded that the Taliban cannot be eliminated as a political or military movement, regardless of how many combat forces are sent into battle,” the Washington Post reported on Friday.

“The Taliban is a deeply rooted political movement in Afghanistan, so that requires a different approach than al-Qaeda,” a senior administration official said. The Post reported that government officials have compared the Taliban to Hezbollah, the popularly based Shiite movement in Lebanon, which “has political support is not a threat to the United States.”

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/oct2009/afgh-o10.shtml

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