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More US Troops in Afghanistan Than Iraq: Pentagon
WASHINGTON - For the first time, more US forces are deployed in Afghanistan than Iraq, amid a buildup of American troops in the Afghan war, the Pentagon said on Monday.
US soldiers take position during a patrol in Ibrahim Khel village of Khost province on April 11. For the first time, more US forces are deployed in Afghanistan than Iraq, amid a buildup of American troops in the Afghan war, the Pentagon said on Monday. (AFP/File/Massoud Hossaini) About 94,000 US troops are now in Afghanistan, while 92,000 remain in Iraq, where commanders are gradually scaling back the US contingent, Lieutenant Colonel Elizabeth Robbins told AFP.
The latest troop numbers reflect a shift in US priorities under President Barack Obama, who as a candidate slammed the Iraq war as a distraction undermining the US-led effort in Afghanistan.
The US force in Afghanistan has roughly tripled since Obama took office in January 2009, when more than 30,000 troops were stationed in the country.
Most of the troops in a 30,000-strong surge ordered by Obama in December have arrived in the country, with the NATO-led force focusing on pushing Taliban insurgents out of Kandahar city and nearby villages.
Obama has ordered the withdrawal of all combat troops from Iraq by September, with the US force due to decline to 50,000. Under a security agreement with Baghdad, all US forces must pull out by the end of 2011.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates said last week the drawdown of US troops from Iraq remained on track and had not been delayed because of recent violence or delays in forming a new Iraqi government.
Gates was due to hold talks at the Pentagon on Monday with the US commander in Iraq, General Ray Odierno.
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28 Comments so far
Show All"Obama has ordered the withdrawal of all combat troops from Iraq by September, with the US force due to decline to 50,000."
Maybe Japan and others could also be persuaded reluctantly to allow the "withdrawal" of a few of their leftover American bases and troops if they were asked nicely. They've been hanging around there for quite a long while.
I suppose that it's a good thing that all of America's residual 50,000 "non-combat troops" in Iraq will have untold numbers of Blackwater/Xe mercenaries there to protect them and their defenceless bases surrounding the oil fields. Those long pipelines winding through countless miles of open desert might remain slightly vulnerable, however.
As for more U.S. troops in Afghanistan than in Iraq, the combat to non-combat ratios seem to be a bit vague. One assumes that those involved in the planned forthcoming attacks on Kandahar will be of the combat variety. In any case, it's increasingly difficult to distinguish between them and their mercenary supporters/defenders. And in what country/category count, if any, does one include the brave heros sitting in their remotely located drone guidance bases?
Somehow, the military numbers juggling game just doesn't seem to add up to any significant change in real comfort levels for anyone inolved.
RV: wow. Brilliant.
Its all lies and deceit, easy to do since the msm is under control of the fascist amerikan empire !
The coined term is called "Tooth-to-tail ratio"
The ratio of "US troops in the field" to "people handling logistics" is 1:2
So, when we hear numbers like 50k or 84k, times it by 2 and that will be your average total commitment.
Don't forget the military contractors.
Can we build the pipeline now?
“I cannot think of a time when we have had a region emerge as suddenly to become as strategically significant as the Caspian. But the oil and gas there is worthless until it is moved. The only route which makes both political and economic sense is through Afghanistan.”
--- Dick Cheney, Chief Executive of Halliburton, 1998
“To be truthful about it, there was no way we could have got the public consent to have suddenly launched a campaign on Afghanistan but for what happened on September 11.”
--- Tony Blair comments to the Commons liaison committee, (London) Times, July 17, 2002
Even better! we can open up a third front in North Korea!
Any bets that North Korea is feeling the freedom of knowing that a financially battered USA pinned down in two wars simply cannot prosecute a third one? The only reason they might lose is if their own army surrenders wholesale....and then we'd have to win yet another peace....oh and we have shown such competence there!
And the fact North Korea has had a very dire famine, with reports of even the Army running out of food will have nothing to do with who would win a war.
Hmm, North Korea having weapons from the 1980's wont have anything to do with who would win a war.
Not to mention a new war wont happen in Korea. N.Korea's just trying to get some attention so they can demand more aid, they do this shit all the time. Instead of just admitting communism is a grand failure and reunifying with South Korea German style , the leaders continue to starve there people and order anyone trying to escape to be shot.
Ohh and you forgot S. Korea's Army is one of the best trained and best equipped in the world....
It's enough to make you hate and despise both of the two wings of the War Party, isn't it? (Let's face it, friends -- we don't have a two-party system, we have a two-wings-of-one-party system masquerading as a two-party system!) Might as well kiss the American Empire goodbye; sooner or later, the proud and shameful edifice will come crashing down like Jericho's walls.
and for me, the 1000 casualties over nine years
seems unreal..
They got caught fudging the #s in Viet, maybe here too.
There is no way we could know.
Our troops are 'protecting' us from the wrong threat in the wrong gulf.
WTF! Is there any sanity anywhere? They are not protecting Americans at home. They are trying to protect/provide corporate interests for $$$$. As late as August 2001 the Bush regime was trying to purchase pipeline rights thru Afganistan from the Taliban. They told him to f*ck-off. Thats the truth. Everything else is just propaganda to feed the masses. We are not making any friends. Quite the opposite. Just for what? To control Urasion oil. Does this make you feel safer?
This is actually what American troops are bringing home and until we bring our troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan we're going to only aid al Qaeda.
http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=UYLm1tJhxl0&feature=related
A and I are the only places the MI/OILC can exercise its murderous capabilities without accountability.
The parade of excuses and lies proves the depravity of it.
It is a maelstrom of corruption and dishonor perpetrated by those most likely to profit from it.
What aspects of "our way of life" are worth this abysmal shame?
What of the oath of office, Constitutional principles and the thousands of stones at Arlington?
Blood for oil/natural resources.
Chelsea
I suppose one could say that we are doing pretty well considering previous attempts at nation-building in Afghanistan. When the Brits tried in the first Anglo-Afghanistan war around 1840 they were forced out of Kabul. During their retreat they lost 4,500 soldiers and some 12,000 support staff and camp followers. One man (Dr. Wm Brydon) made it to safety in Jalalabad.
"The top American commander in the Middle East has ordered a broad expansion of clandestine military activity in an effort to disrupt militant groups or counter threats in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and other countries in the region, according to defense officials and military documents."
So, David Betray-Us is head of Murder Incorporated now?
••• we have always been at war with Eurasia,,,
“Political language... is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”
--- George Orwell
1. The order probably means that the first forays of small Special Operations units will go into Pakistan.
2. The Kandahar offensive aims at securing the ingress and egress lanes against Taliban attacks from the South.
3. Yesterday, a member of the U.S. House (I have forgotten her name) stated in the context of DADT: "The Congress makes military policy". LOL!
4. If President Obama has not approved this "broad expansion of clandestine military activity" (into Saudi Arabia of all places!) the General should be fired but will not be fired because he is a potential presidential candidate in 2012. You want him on the inside; not on the outside.
5. "Clandestine military activity" is an Orwellism for spying and spies can be executed. Apparently some in the Pentagon are worried.
6. I have the weird feeling that a time machine has taken me back to the spring of 1939.
Here we go again. I have frequently pointed out that President Obama has developed the cowardly habit of letting his military commanders announce new policies instead of himself. Yesterday General Petraeus announced a change in policy which would allow a more aggressive use of soldiers infiltrating Iran and other countries in the world. Mr. Obama is hiding again behind his medal-studded chest.
I am most certain that this isn't what we meant by "Get our troops out of Iraq!"
So suddenly the despised gays and lesbians are now to be allowed 'come out' and still be in the military!!! I hope they do not show this 'compassion' to gays and lesbians, so that they do 'come out' and can be identified for the most dangerous fronts of the wars and have them deployed until they come back, eventually, in a box?
I think were I a gay or lesbian in the military I would stay in the closet.
They don't do it because it will work. They do it because they have the capacity to do it.
It will advance their agenda of endless war just as well as other tactics that have become boring to report.
Like a tradesman with with a job he has no idea how to do, but a big bag of tools to do something with. It's just a death machine that needs to keep running to generate MIC profits, promotions and cross-over corporate ricebowl positions. No ryme or reason.
Occupation forces in Pipe-O-Stan claim they want to make friends with the Civilians in Taliban country...Hmmm...Civillian deaths & wounded continually rising from airstrikes and occupation forces want to make friends..Hmmm.
I have to believe that the Taliban's tactics are going to get better and they'll develop sneakier tactics of evasion.
The question of whether the Taliban will be able to give US & NATO Toops a run for its money is if the Taliban can get a steady source of supplies at the same level that they had when they defeated the Russians.
Another complication is in Iraq where the Maliki governent is invalidating Sunni's who won seats, throwing them out of many of their election wins. Already in Iraq, bombs are exploding in the Green Zone in Baghdad with virtually the same impunity that the insurgents had back in the 'good old days'.
What if Iraq goes back to the same havoc as it did at the height of the Falljah debacle, and things get very hairy in Pipe-O-Stan? Well for us it will be more of our folding green going to support these Neo-Lebensraum occupations.
There is a vulnerability in this situation with Obomber counting on things cooling down in Iraq.
We Ain't Seen Nothing Yet!
More targets for Afghan freedom fighters and patriots.