Gen. McChrystal Warns of Defeat if He Doesn’t Get More Troops

Now Seeking 'Up to 45,000' More for Afghan Conflict

by Jason Ditz, September 21, 2009

Though only yesterday President Barack Obama insisted that the decision on more troops for Afghanistan “could wait” and declined to even indicate when he might make such a decision, his top commander in Afghanistan is suggesting a decision needs to be made, and soon.

Gen. Stanley McChrystal

General Stanley McChrystal’s heavy redacted assessment of the war, which was submitted to Secretary Gates weeks ago, cautions that if he doesn’t get significant amounts of additional troops within the next 12 months the war will “likely result in failure.”

And while it had been reported before that Gen. McChrystal had requested 40,000 troops, the general is now seeking as many as 45,000 more troops, on top of the 68,000 already there and the 3,000 troops already approved earlier this month.

The British government is also poised to throw another 1,000 troops at the ongoing war, and the overall war effort if Gen. McChrystal gets everything he wants will exceed 135,000, exceeding the size of the occupation force the Soviets sent to Afghanistan for the first time since the 2001 invasion.