by Julian E. Barnes and updated
A properly resourced counter-insurgency effort in Afghanistan probably means that more military forces will be needed there, the top uniformed officer said today.
Adm. Michael G. Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he had not received a formal request from Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top allied commander in Afghanistan, for additional trainers and combat troops
But Mullen said that, based on the strategy that McChrystal had outlined, more troops would likely be needed.
"He is in a position where he needs to retake the initiative from the insurgents," Mullen told the Senate Armed Services Committee this morning.
Mullen said no decision had been made to send additional forces beyond the 21,000 additional forces approved this year by President Obama.
Mullen largely stayed away from specifics of how many additional troops would be needed, saying instead that that he believed more resources would be needed to execute the Obama administration's strategy.
"A properly resourced counter insurgency probably means more forces," Mullen said.
Mullen said the additional resources were needed in part because Afghanistan had not received the troops and equipment needed in years past. "We very badly under resourced Afghanistan for four or five years," he said.
Mullen appeared before the Senate committee for a hearing on his renomination for a second term as chairman. Committee members focus on the issue of speeding the training of Afghan security forces.
Mullen said that Afghanistan security forces needed between 2,000 and 4,000 additional allied trainers beyond the 6,500 currently in the country.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the ranking Republican on the committee, said it made little sense to quickly train Afghan security forces and then shove them to the front with little further assistance.
"When this approach was tried in Iraq, Iraqi units collapsed repeatedly in the face of attacks," McCain said.
Mullen said key strategies from the war in Iraq would be applied to Afghanistan.
"Not every lesson of Iraq will apply but the big ones will," Mullen said.
Mullen said that, under McChrystal, the U.S. and its allies would focus on protecting the Afghan people, connecting them to the government and enabling them to protect themselves. That mission means the U.S. needs to be in Afghanistan.
"You can't do that from off-shore and you can't do that by just killing the bad guys," Mullen said. "You have to be there."
Mullen said that Afghanistan and Pakistan "remains the epicenter of violent Islamic fundamentalism." The military effort must be focused on supporting the region's governments, he said.
"If they have an alternative to Taliban rule they will choose it," Mullen said.
McCain said he approved of Obama's "unequivocal priority" on achieving success in Afghanistan and Mullen's focus on that war effort. But he said he did not want the White House or Pentagon to delay in providing more troops to support McChrystal's new strategy.
"Every day we delay in implementing this strategy and putting more troops in Afghanistan puts more young Americans lives in danger," McCain said.
Comments
Where are more troops from other nations in the Middle East? No more new American troops until Israel, Iraq, Jordan or others put in more troops to die in Afghan. The best way to train Iraqi troops is to give them apprenticeships in Afghan.
So, why do these other nations not feel the need for the new Vietnam?
The Viet Cong never followed us home.
Mullen and Obama are afraid to trump the image of McCain. However, McCain flew in too far and got caught. He's not the man to listen to in battle. He also crashed quite a few planes. Why did the Pentagon continue to give McCain more and more planes to crash? Did he liken the cost of the planes to crashing a few kites with his Daddy? McCain seemed to have been propped up by his father and grandfather's laurels--and we got stuck with the grandson. How dare the Republicans and Swiftboaters questioned and spit on the integrity of Senator Kerry's service.
No Adm. Mullen--THE UN NEEDS TO BE THERE, NOT US. Too many American citizens being killed for the Bush/Cheney/Pentagon military-industrial complex. And, too many American citizens dying because of the money it takes away from health care.
If Bush never felt like getting Ossama, we never will now. Never in the history of history, have I read that an enemy was not seen in eight years. Why continue the Ossama lies? They are getting a bit old. Its as if someone is paying an Ossama character to deliver blips at opportune times. Ossama has turned into the new 'they' or 'them'. There is no Ossama. There is only the lie.
Mullen, Obama and the Pentagon are ostensibly letting a flea get the best of them and the best of us.
Our best have already died for this BS insanity. Wasted lives and a squandered US treasury are the result. Total BS and total lack of responsibility. Look up the number of politicians who get wealth from defense contracts. Look up past politicians--and their wives--back 25 years. Total conflict of interests. American soldiers' lives are merely clicks on the politicians or Pentagonistas adding machines. The Pentagon would rather deal with death than with life. What a dark existence. They continue to reinvent the wheel for death and fear. Why not turn the Pentagon into a university for statesmanship, medicine, languages, desalinization, and farming? And, get rid of the money grabbers and death planners.
Posted by: Vivian | September 15, 2009 12:24 PM
Hopefully those new troops will come from all those "Coalition of the Willing" country's that the Bush Administration used to reference.
Posted by: kg123 | September 15, 2009 12:35 PM
If troops are needed, than President Obama should go to NATO or the U.N. for their military support. America must be willing to allow a neutral coalition to police hot spots around the world. We have already given too much of our most cherished possession, our citizens in uniform, in the name of retaliation for 9-11. I will not detail our other losses, suffice it to say, our debt is now in the Trillions, because of the Cheney&Bush stupidity. Let the world put together a force that will step into these international troubles and quell them !! It is not our place any more, besides we have a crippled nation that needs to be healed !!
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS, BRING THEM HOME, ALIVE AND WHOLE. NOW.
Posted by: Don Fitzgerald, IL | September 15, 2009 12:40 PM
Vivian . . .I'm trying to get on whatever planet you are on. From what I gather, OBL is a lie made up by GWB to help his pals in the military-industrial complex. That's what I gather so far. Where I get confused is Obama's role. He has acknowledged the existence of OBL, that it is a priority to capture/kill him, and to rid Afghanastan of AQ. BO has also sent more troops there, and another troop request is coming down the pike. Who profits? The military-indistrial complex again? So is BO part of the conspiracy too? Please explain where he fits in.
-------
Along the same lines of the conspiracy that you have uncovered, where does Bill Clinton fit in? Clinton recognized the threat of OBL when he was POTUS, and authorized the CIA to kill him.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/09/24/clinton.binladen/index.html
So where does he fit into the "lie" of OBL? Did Clinton make him up? Is he the originator of the "lie"? Maybe someone before him? Get to the bottom of it, Vivian.
---------
Lastly, what on earth does John McCain getting shot down in Viet Nam have to do with more troops going to Afghanastan?
Posted by: Herbie H. | September 15, 2009 5:06 PM
KGB123,
The European allies s/b pouring troops into Afghanistan now that the Chosen One is president. Isn't that what everyone said was wrong with our foriegn policy - Bush was in charge? Let's see if BO gets our weak kneed allies across the pond to chip in more.
Posted by: Terry | September 15, 2009 7:01 PM
Herbie H.-- Solidly on Earth.
No "conspiracy" uncovered. It has been, or has not been there all along. Where is the big enemey from 9/11--whose family Bush had tenderly flown out of the USA--for THEIR safety--when no other planes were allowed to fly? The Pentagon, Republicans and reapers of defense contract pay offs have gotten a lot of milage out of a boogy man that no one has seen for eight years.
McCain is "focused on the war effort". Why? The man is hard wired for war. It's automatic--it's in his DNA--it was his ticket to the Senate. No thought needed. Scary. I don't respect the man's input for peace as ranking member of Senate Armed Services Committee. The "War on Terror" could have started with Cain and Able and could go on until the Earth falls into the Sun. This nebulous concept is total BS. "War on terror" is very handy for any mission creep that any politician or military brass might personally need or dream up. War on Terror. Why not War on Bad Weather? Why not War on Others Calling Us Ugly Americans? We could get as much mileage out of that as the Terror thing.
BTW, Herbie--thousands of people were not killed in the WTC--by whomever--on Clinton's watch. Clinton would have heeded the concrete warnings and never allowed it to happen. Were there at least a few civilian lip readers in on that initial post 9/11 Ossama tape when he allegedly said, wow, it all worked better than I thought it would? I always thought that was a very weak smoking gun. No conspiracy theory here--yet note, the ducks are not quacking like ducks. They never did.
Posted by: Vivian | September 15, 2009 11:09 PM
Mullen sees more troops in Afg?
Well, if all you have is a hammer....
BHO and co. need to produce a plan that gets us out of Iraq and Afg. asap. Post haste.
I realize we need to hang about a bit for a while, but the foot dragging should be measured as a year at the outside.
We have been fused at the hip to two of the most corrupt, hated, violent and inept puppet regimes in our history.
Diem comes to mind.
Posted by: C.Morris | September 16, 2009 2:56 PM