The war is going badly. Mullen is going to ask for more troops when the US public support is low.
State of Afghanistan 'deteriorating,' top U.S. commander says
State of Afghanistan 'deteriorating,' top U.S. commander says
23 Aug [Globe&Mail] The war in Afghanistan is going so badly – “it is serious and it is deteriorating” – that America's top military commander Admiral Mike Mullen was grimly preparing a war-weary public Sunday for the possibility that many more U.S soldiers may soon be needed to quell the raging Taliban insurgency.
This already has been the bloodiest summer for both foreign troops and Afghans since 2001.
U.S. commanders are expected to ask President Barack Obama – who campaigned on getting Americans troops out of Iraq so they could focus on winning in Afghanistan – for three or four additional brigades (as many as 20,000 more soldiers) next month.
Sunday's high-profile round of televised interviews launched a campaign to drum up flagging public support.
At present, more than 100,000 U.S. and NATO troops – roughly matching the peak Soviet deployment in Moscow's failed 10-year effort to subjugate Afghanistan – are battling a resurgent Taliban that last month killed more foreign soldiers than at any time since former president George W. Bush ordered the Taliban toppled after 9/11. .....
This already has been the bloodiest summer for both foreign troops and Afghans since 2001.
U.S. commanders are expected to ask President Barack Obama – who campaigned on getting Americans troops out of Iraq so they could focus on winning in Afghanistan – for three or four additional brigades (as many as 20,000 more soldiers) next month.
Sunday's high-profile round of televised interviews launched a campaign to drum up flagging public support.
At present, more than 100,000 U.S. and NATO troops – roughly matching the peak Soviet deployment in Moscow's failed 10-year effort to subjugate Afghanistan – are battling a resurgent Taliban that last month killed more foreign soldiers than at any time since former president George W. Bush ordered the Taliban toppled after 9/11. .....
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