White House Authorizes More Support Troops for Afghanistan
The rumors that President Obama would cut and run from Afghanistan appear to have been greatly exaggerated.
President Obama announced in March that he would be sending 21,000 additional troops to Afghanistan. But in an unannounced move, the White House has also authorized — and the Pentagon is deploying — at least 13,000 troops beyond that number, according to defense officials.
The additional troops are primarily support forces, including engineers, medical personnel, intelligence experts and military police. Their deployment has received little mention by officials at the Pentagon and the White House, who have spoken more publicly about the combat troops who have been sent to Afghanistan.
The deployment of the support troops to Afghanistan brings the total increase approved by Obama to 34,000.
UPDATE at 10/13/09 1:22:50 pm:
The Pentagon now says the Washington Post got the story wrong: VOA News - Pentagon Denies Report of ‘Unannounced’ Troops in Afghanistan.
The Pentagon says a Washington Post story claiming it is making an “unannounced” deployment of 13,000 additional troops to Afghanistan is inaccurate.
A Pentagon spokesman, Colonel Dave Lapan, says the Post story itself notes that the 13,000 support troops are within the overall maximum authorized by President Barack Obama earlier this year. “The story confirms that 68,000 is still the number. So nothing is missing. Nothing is hidden. The 13,000 doesn’t somehow increase from 68 [thousand] to above that. So we’ve consistently said by the end of the year, on the current glide path, 68,000. And as the story acknowledges, that’s where we’ll be,” said Lapan.
(So maybe Obama still might be planning to cut and run after all. You know how these socialists are.)
Frank says: