Officials say that hundreds of additional US troops are to be deployed to Afghanistan early next year, and that when that deployment is finished, the US may have roughly 16,00 troops in the nation, a substantial escalation since President Trump announced a buildup in August.
Exact figures are tough to come by, of course. It is believed the US has since about 3,800 troops to Afghanistan since the announced buildup, but Trump’s interest in keeping troop levels secret has meant specifics are not released to the media, something that had always been the case in the war’s first 15 years.
Even then, though, the official figures were often lies, as President Trump announced the escalation at a time when the Pentagon said there were 8,448 troops in Afghanistan, but officials later admitted they thought the real figure was closer to 11,000 or 12,000. At this point it’s not wholly certain even the Pentagon keeps track of exact figures.
The new “hundreds more” troops are being described by officials as “trainers,” though it’s not clear that’s whast they’re actually doing, as officially almost all US troops deployed overseas are referred to as training forces on “advisory” missions.
What? We’re STILL in Afghanistan? 😮
That reminds me of Clemenceau’s daily mantra: “les Boches sont toujours at Soissons”. Except that we have been much longer in A. than the Boches at S.
When the USA decides to do ANYTHING other than create wars, wake me up. Until then, just more of the same old, same old. Gets old after so many decades.
This is a permanent presence. You know, security and all that..
16000 more of America’s youth put in harms way so that corporations can benefit from a pipeline?
This doesn’t count the thousands of CIA mercenaries in Afghanistan to protect the opium crop.