US to send 'much more' troops to Afghanistan 04/04/2008 - 17:16:20
The US is committed to sending "many more" troops to the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan, defence secretary Robert Gates announced today.
It is the first time the Bush administration has made such a commitment for 2009.
Mr Gates said President George Bush made the pledge at the Nato summit in Romania yesterday.
The president did not put a number on the additional troops. The US now has about 31,000 there, the most since the war began in October 2001, and has been pressing the allies to contribute more.
Until now, the heavy commitment of US forces in Iraq has been a constraint on the ability to increase US troop levels in Afghanistan. But Mr Gates said he did not believe that would be the case in 2009.
He said he advised Mr Bush to make the pledge to allied leaders in Bucharest even though the movement of the unspecified additional troops would ultimately be a decision for the next president, who will take office in January.
"The question arises, how can we say that about 2009?" Gates said. "All I would say is, I believe ... this is one area where there is very broad bipartisan support in the United States for being successful" in Afghanistan, where, by many accounts, progress against the Taliban resistance has stalled.
"I think that no matter who is elected president, they would want to be successful in Afghanistan. So I think this was a very safe thing for him to say," the Pentagon chief added.
It is widely agreed within the Bush administration and between the United States and its key allies in Afghanistan that they have too few troops on the ground to effectively fight the Taliban resistance - especially in the volatile south.
The question that has been contemplated for many months is how to find additional troops.
The administration initially pushed hard for other Nato countries to fill the gap. Having largely failed in that effort, the US military now seems convinced that it will have to bear more of the load.
HOME PAGE
ARCHIVES
|