by Frank James
Defense Secretary Robet Gates is causing some headscratching today with a statement he made to reporters traveling aboard his military airfcraft. He said the Pentagon will be sending a significant number of additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan in 2009.
The puzzlement comes because the Bush Administration ends on Jan. 20, 2009. It won’t exactly be in a position to send any servicemember anywhere after that date.
Maybe the plan is to send them in the roughly three weeks before Inauguration Day? Or perhaps he’s counting on whoever is elected the next president will keep a Bush Administration commitment to send additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan since there has been concern for some time about there not being enough troops there, especially in the south where Taliban forces have been resurgent.
Here’s the Associated Press story:
by ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer
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ABOARD A MILITARY AIRCRAFT (AP) — Defense Secretary Robert Gates says that the U.S. intends to send many more combat forces to Afghanistan next year, regardless of whether troop levels in Iraq are cut further in the second half of this year.
It’s the first time the Bush administration has made such a commitment for 2009.
Gates was speaking to reporters on Friday while flying to Muscat, Oman, from a NATO summit in Bucharest, Romania. The Pentagon chief says that President Bush made the troop pledge during the summit.
Gates said Bush was not specific about the number of additional troops that would go to Afghanistan. The U.S. now has about 31,000 troops there.