Wednesday, October 14, 2009
(map: ISAF, NATO)
Since President Barack Obama’s announcement in March that the United States would be sending additional soldiers to Afghanistan, the number repeatedly cited by administration officials has been 21,000. But in actuality the number heading overseas is 34,000. Why the discrepancy?
President Obama intends to send 21,000 combat troops, but in order for these soldiers to wage war, they need lots of support, including food, fuel and intelligence. This requires sending another 13,000 personnel, such as engineers, medical personnel, intelligence experts and military police. So the total being shipped to Afghanistan is 34,000.
The overall force size for the Afghanistan war is expected to be the same as previously declared by the administration: 68,000. Once this level is reached, the total number of American troops in Afghanistan and Iraq will exceed the peak that occurred during the Iraq “surge” that President George W. Bush ordered in 2007.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Support Troops Swelling U.S. Force in Afghanistan (by Ann Scott Tyson, Washington Post)
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