Washington
- General Stanley
McChrystal (photo), the commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, declared the conflict was at a
critical and decisive moment.” What he is likely to
propose:
* Funding to nearly double the size of the Afghan government army from 135,000 to 240,000, and the police from 82,000 to 160,000.
* The long-term deployment of up to 10,000 additional US troops to function as trainers and overseers for the expansion of the Afghan security
forces.
* The short-term deployment of between two and eight additional combat
brigades, amounting to anywhere between 10,000 and 60,000 troops.
McChrystal also intends to ask for a major increase in US government employees in various advisory
functions. Essentially, their role will be to run entire departments of the puppet government in Kabul.
The Taliban have increased the number of districts under its control from 30 in 2003 to 160 by the end of 2008, and its attacks on occupation forces had soared by 60 percent between October 2008 and April 2009. Since 2001, Afghanistan has already cost the US Treasury some $223
billion. The cost of military operations alone would
balloon to $100 billion over the coming year.
