Pentagon Revises Estimate: Taking Syria’s Weapons Requires 75,000 Troops

In August They Said 50,000 to 60,000 Would Be Enough

It hasn’t even happened, but the speculative US invasion and occupation of Syria is getting bigger and bigger, with the Pentagon revising August estimates about a plan to seize Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal up, saying now that they would require 75,000 troops.

That’s a significant increase over August, when they estimated 50,000 to 60,000 troops were needed for this mission, which officials continue to insist they are preparing for the possibility of launching.

This troop level is strictly for the mission of invading the country and taking the chemical weapons, and a full occupation of the nation along with the various “peacekeeping” operations the US would no doubt tack on would require even more troops.

Though some NATO members nations have expressed interest in playing a role in a Syrian occupation, France and Turkey in particular, many of the nations are already war fatigued from the Afghan occupation, so the vast majority of any invasion force would have to come from the US directly.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.