10,000 more troops sought for Afghanistan - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

10,000 more troops sought for Afghanistan

The top U.S. general in Afghanistan wants an additional 10,000 troops in 2010 beyond the 21,000 approved for the current year, according to testimony Wednesday during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing.

If the request by Gen. David McKiernan is OK’d by President Barack Obama, it would bring the total U.S. force in Afghanistan to about 78,000 sometime in 2010. That would be an increase of 40,000 troops over the current total.

“There is a request for forces for those elements, Senator,” Army Gen. David Petraeus, commander of U.S. Central Command and McKiernan’s boss, told committee chairman Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., “and it has — it did move through me. My understanding is it has not been sent beyond the Pentagon at this time.”

Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Michele Flournoy indicated that Defense Secretary Robert Gates won’t forward the recommendation to Obama until the fall when the troops, if Obama approves the request, in Levin’s words, “can get there on the time line that General McKiernan has requested them.”

“The way this is presented to the president was sort of on a timeline of when decisions would have to be made in order for troops to deploy to meet the requirement,” Flournoy said.

The decision, she said, would be “for troop arrivals in 2010.”

Last fall, McKiernan, who commands U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, asked the Pentagon for four additional brigade combat teams and an unspecified number of combat “enablers” such as intelligence assets, to fight Taliban insurgents and train Afghan army and police. During a February news conference at the Pentagon, he confirmed that he had asked for a total of about 30,000 additional troops, but alluded to the possibility of a decision “later in the year” on sending additional troops.

Defense officials later confirmed that an additional 10,000 troops were part of McKiernan’s original request. It would be composed of a brigade combat team, a division headquarters and additional enablers.

The 10th Mountain Division’s 3rd Brigade Combat Team arrived in Afghanistan in January. Obama authorized two more BCTs in February, and the 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade is en route. The fourth unit, along with additional combat enablers — including about 1,000 whose deployment orders went out last week — will raise total U.S. strength in Afghanistan from the present 38,000 to a projected 68,000, Flournoy told the committee.

That figure does not include the 10,000 troops that could be deployed next year, according to Lt. Col. Mark Wright, a Pentagon spokesman.

In addition, Petraeus essentially confirmed that the 4th Brigade Combat Team of the 82nd Airborne Division of Fort Bragg, N.C., will indeed serve as the 4,000-member training team authorized March 27 by Obama. A defense official had subsequently confirmed the identity of the unit but the Pentagon still has yet to make an official announcement.

Asked by Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., whether additional trainers would be needed in Afghanistan beyond that, Petraeus replied that he wants to reassess the situation after “the addition of the 4th Brigade of the 82nd, the elements that will provide the additional trainers and advisers.”

The 4th BCT was slated to deploy to Iraq later this year.