Afghan Escalation Slower Than Expected

General Concedes Some Troops Might Not Arrive Until November

by Jason Ditz, December 14, 2009

When President Barack Obama announced his 30,000 man escalation of the war in Afghanistan, officials said the plan was to have all those troops in place within six months, by early June.

But Admiral Michael Mullen later said it would not finish until fall, and today Lieutenant General David Rodriguez says that the escalation might not arrive until 11 months later, roughly November.

The escalation is seen as a considerable logistics challenge for the military, pumping massive numbers of troops into a land-locked nation on the other side of the planet which has few points of access and indeed, few roads at all.

But if the escalation’s timetable has already been bumped five months back, it must inevitably be asked if the administration’s other timetables for the war, notably the December 2010 analysis of the surge (which will only be completed for a few weeks) and the July 2011 handover date will be pushed back with it.

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