Gates: Aghanistan demands more troops

by Julian E. Barnes

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, saying the war in Afghanistan has become America's "top overseas military priority," told lawmakers today that the number of U.S. troops there will increase dramatically this spring and grow through the summer.

But because of a lack of infrastructure -- dining halls, bases, hospitals, and logistics hubs -- it would difficult to send troops into Afghanistan much faster, he said.

U.S. commanders in Afghanistan have been seeking extra units for months but have been forced by strains on the U.S. military to wait until troops are withdrawn from Iraq.

One new unit, the 3rd Brigade Combat Team of the 10th Mountain Division from Ft. Drum, N.Y., is arriving now to supplement the 31,000 U.S. troops now in Afghanistan. That unit originally was scheduled to go to Iraq, but was redirected.

By this spring, Gates told the Senate Armed Services Committee, two additional brigades will be sent to Afghanistan, to be joined by a third in mid-summer.

The plans reflect the changing view of the conflict. Under former President Bush, top military leaders regarded Afghanistan as a secondary effort to the war in Iraq. But Gates said Afghanistan had become the Pentagon's greatest challenge.

"We have not had enough troops to provide a baseline level of security in some of the most dangerous areas - a vacuum that increasingly has been filled by the Taliban," Gates said.

Gates stressed the need for practical objectives, saying lofty goals would increase U.S. risks. "We need to keep our objectives realistic and limited; otherwise we will set ourselves up for failure," Gates said.

Gates said the U.S. primary objectives should be persuading the Afghan people not to provide a haven for Al Qaeda. "Whatever else we need to do flows from that objective," Gates said.

Sen. John McCain, returning to his position as the top Republican on the Armed Services committee after his unsuccessful run for president, said he did not expect the situation in Afghanistan to turn around as quickly as Iraq, where violence has declined.

"The American people must understand this is a long, hard slog in Afghanistan," McCain said, relying on the phrase once used by former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. "The American people need to understand what is at stake and it will take a long time to secure America's vital national security interests in the region."

McCain, while questioning Gates, advocated steps to build up Afghan forces. Gates agreed, calling a U.S. training effort the "exit ticket." Currently, he said, the U.S. is building the Afghan army from its present size of 80,000 to about 134,000.

"I am not sure even this number will be large enough," Gates said. "Our highest priority needs to be increasing the size of that army."

Boosting the size of the Afghan forces is expected to cost $4 billion, and maintaining the enlarged force will cost $2.5 billion a year, Gates said, adding U.S. officials hope their NATO allies will help pay the costs.

In his opening statement to the committee, Gates also outlined plans to reform how the Pentagon buys new weapons.

At the close of the Bush administration, Gates said he "punted" a number difficult purchasing decisions. Now, after President Obama asked him to remain as Defense secretary, Gates said the Pentagon no longer will be able to "do everything, buy everything."

As U.S. defense spending increases that followed the Sept. 11 attacks wind down, the administration must "critically and ruthlessly separate appetites from real requirements," Gates said.

Going forward, Gates said he planned to favor simpler, less sophisticated weapons systems that, while not perfect, offer most of what the military needs.

"We will pursue greater quantities of systems that represent the '75 percent' solution instead of smaller quantities of '99 percent' exquisite systems," Gates said

He did not specifiy which systems would be excluded, but said he would need support from lawmakers to cut imperfect systems.

Some senators signaled that cutting many of the Pentagon's current weapons programs could face difficulty.

Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) said that shutting down the production line for the F-22, an expensive fighter plane, would cost the country 95,000 jobs.

"If we want to truly stimulate the economy," Chambliss said, "there is no better place to do it than the defense budget."