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The Other Lost War: US to Send 3, 000 More Marines to Afghanistan
Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
AP via Yahoo - Jan 10, 2008
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080110/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_afghanistan
US to send 3,000 Marines to Afghanistan
By LOLITA C. BALDOR
The Pentagon is preparing to send at least 3,000 Marines to Afghanistan
in April to bolster efforts to hold off another expected Taliban
offensive in the spring, military officials said Wednesday.
The move represents a ****ft in Pentagon thinking that has been slowly
developing after months of repeated insistence that the U.S. was not
inclined to fill the need for as many as 7,500 more troops that
commanders have asked for there. Instead, Defense Secretary Robert
Gates pressed NATO allies to contribute the extra forces.
Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said Wednesday that a proposal
will go before Gates on Friday that would send a ground and air Marine
contingent as well as a Marine battalion " together totaling more than
3,000 forces " to southern Afghanistan for a "one-time, seven-month
deployment."
Gates, he said, will want to review the request, and is not likely to
make a final decision on Friday.
"He will take it and consider it thoroughly before approving it," said
Morrell. "I just want to get people away from the idea that this is
going to be imminently approved by the secretary."
He said Gates "has some more thinking to do on this matter because it's
a serious allocation of forces."
Morrell added that Gates' thinking on the issue has "progressed a bit"
over time as it became clear that it was politically untenable for many
of the NATO nations to contribute more combat troops to the fight.
"The commanders need more forces there. Our allies are not in the
position to provide them. So we are now looking at perhaps carrying a
bit of that additional load," the spokesman said.
Morrell said the move, first re****ted Wednesday by ABC News, was aimed
at beating back "another Taliban offensive" that is expected this
spring " as has occurred in previous years.
When Gates was in Afghanistan last month, commanders made it clear they
needed the additional forces.
Last year was the most violent since the U.S.-led invasion of
Afghanistan in 2001. The number of attacks has surged, including
roadside bombings and suicide assaults.
Currently there are about 27,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, including
14,000 with the NATO-led coalition. The other 13,000 U.S. troops are
training the Afghan forces and hunting al-Qaida terrorists.
Morrell said that while the Marine ground and air contingent would be
put in place to prevent a spring Taliban offensive, the Marine
battalion likely would be used to train Afghan forces.
The ****ft in U.S. thinking on sending more combat forces to Afghanistan
has appeared inevitable in recent weeks, based on the political
realities in many of the NATO nations.
In meeting after meeting during his Afghanistan visit in early
December, Gates heard pleas from both Afghan and U.S. military leaders
for up to 7,500 more forces, with about half needed for training.
About a week later, Gates was asked by a re****ter after a NATO meeting
in Scotland whether the Bush administration was considering sending
more troops to Afghanistan, in the event that the shortfalls are not
bridged by NATO allies. Gates replied, "Not in the short term."
But by Dec. 21, Gates acknowledged during a press briefing that the
Pentagon would "be looking at the requirement ourselves."
Bush administration officials pressed NATO allies for months to fill
gaps in troops levels in Afghanistan, but many allied governments face
public opposition to deeper involvement there.
Gates said at the Scotland meeting that the administration had decided
to tone down its appeals to allies, taking into account "political
realities" faced by some European governments whose citizens may see
less reason to intervene in Afghanistan.
The Bush administration has launched a wide-ranging review of its
policy in Afghanistan to ensure that gains made since the radical
Islamist Taliban regime was ousted in 2001 are not lost and to bolster
Afghan President Hamid Karzai's nascent government.
___
AP Military Writer Robert Burns contributed to this re****t.
*
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