High end of troop request for Afghanistan: 60,000-plus

[unhappycamper]

A US Chinook helicopter brings more troops to Cop Cherokee base in Afghanistan's Kherwar district, October 3.


High end of troop request for Afghanistan: 60,000-plus
By Gordon Lubold | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
from the October 9, 2009 edition

Washington - Gen. Stanley McChrystal's troop request for Afghanistan includes an option to send at least 60,000 additional American forces to buttress the war effort there – a higher troop request than previously known.

General McChrystal, the top US commander in Afghanistan, included in his classified troop request a "menu" of options, with the high number thought to be about 40,000 reinforcements. But Obama administration officials are confirming privately that the high end is more than 60,000.

The higher number, reported first by The Wall Street Journal on Friday, may be McChrystal's straw man – likely to be knocked down but useful as a negotiation point in getting more troops than he might otherwise. Some experts, though, say the military is not prone to playing a numbers game to try to hedge its bets.

"The military doesn't do that as far as I know," says Karin von Hippel, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank in Washington. McChrystal "was doing a very realistic assessment."

The White House debate over how to move forward in Afghanistan continues Friday, with President Obama's top national security team meeting for a fourth time.


Rest of article at: http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/1009/p02s16-usmi.html

[Mari333]

1. goddamit, he better not escalate.

get them the fuck out, all of them, or give back the goddamned peace prize.

[thunder rising]

2. McChrystals "classified troop request" only available to the Washington Post and British public

That line in the article is a joke, right?

[ixion]

3. Because it's the peaceable thing to do...

killing them over there, and all that. :sarcasm: