Petraeus Seeks More Troops for Afghanistan

Another 2,000 Troops Needed, General Insists

by Jason Ditz, September 06, 2010

Remember when the Bush Administration announced its Afghan War escalation in late 2008? Remember when President Obama announced his first escalation in March 2009? Surely everyone remembers the massive escalation President Obama announced in December, which was supposed to set the stage for a July 2011 drawdown that’s already been disavowed.

Well, a funny thing happened roughly halfway between the announcement of the escalation and the now thoroughly irrelevant “drawdown” date. Gen. David Petraeus, the new commander in Afghanistan, is now asking for more troops.

NATO officials say that Petraeus is asking for at least 2,000 more troops. Officials say that some of them will be solicited from NATO allies, but it is widely assumed that most of the troops will come from the US.

The number is starting comparatively small, but many will remember that what eventually became over a 30,000 troop escalation in December started with talk of a much smaller “surge.” Moreover, with violence on the rise there has been talk that Marines in particular are “spread thin” in Afghanistan.

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