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Most US troops will be sent to Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan
Afghanistan News.Net
Thursday 3rd December, 2009 (ANI)
Kabul, Dec.3 : Of the 30,000 additional American troops to be deployed in Afghanistan in the summer of 2010, most will be sent to the southern part of that country, as it is perceived to be the stronghold of the Taliban, an American military official said here.
The New York Times quotes the official as saying further that the deployment would be in an area including Helmand and Kandahar provinces, seen as the financial and spiritual base of the Taliban.
Two combat brigades, one from the Marines and one from the Army, will go to the south, while another Army brigade will be sent to eastern Afghanistan, the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
Army combat brigades usually comprise about 5,000 soldiers.
The flow of forces will begin "in earnest" next month, the official said, and a majority of troops will be deployed by next summer.
In Helmand, the new Marine brigade will nearly double the Marines' 10,000-strong force. When these troops are combined with British forces, Helmand may end up with well over 20,000 troops, as many as were typically deployed in Baghdad. Helmand covers a far larger territory than Baghdad but has about one-fourth of the population.
The boost will give the Marines the troops they believe they need to attack Taliban sanctuaries that safeguard drug runners, bomb makers and fighters in Helmand, the official said.
Speaking to reporters at his headquarters in Kabul on Wednesday, the American commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, said the new American deployment, along with expected NATO reinforcements, was "sufficient."
"I think that we're going to have exactly what we need to move forward," said the general, who had earlier sought a fourth brigade.
Excluding support units, about one-quarter of the new forces will serve as trainers for Afghan forces. The rest will be traditional combat units teamed with Afghan security forces.
The three new brigades will join the equivalent of what are now roughly five United States combat manoeuvre brigades and two training brigades, and bring the total number of American troops in Afghanistan to almost 100,000.
The biggest troop increase will be in Helmand, where Marines and British troops are battling insurgents skilled at using fertilizer and diesel fuel to manufacture bombs that tear apart armoured vehicles. Almost one of three NATO and American fatalities this year was in Helmand.  Email this story to a friend
Comments on this story
Anti War Candidates
12-03-09, 02:07 PM |
Most US troops will be sent to Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan
I am sure the American people are fed up with these constant wars abroad. Why not try and get candidates who are opposed to futile conflicts. Over 4,000 American soldiers have died in Iraq and now they are dying in Afghanistan for what? 58,000 Americans died in the Vietnam war for nothing but two million Vietnamese also perished. Get anti war candidates elected as both Republican and Democrats are like Tweedle dee and Tweedle dum This could be the way forward and will see you have peace in your time.
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Pontotoc Bill
12-03-09, 03:20 PM |
Anti War Candidates;171873:
I am sure the American people are fed up with these constant wars abroad. Why not try and get candidates who are opposed to futile conflicts. Over 4,000 American soldiers have died in Iraq and now they are dying in Afghanistan for what? 58,000 Americans died in the Vietnam war for nothing but two million Vietnamese also perished. Get anti war candidates elected as both Republican and Democrats are like Tweedle dee and Tweedle dum This could be the way forward and will see you have peace in your time.
The only reason that 58,000 US troops died in Vietnam for nothing is because of the Democrat party. They refused to aid South Vietnam as they promised. They cut off funding for South Vietnam to defend themselves.
Blame the anti-war Democrats like Kerry, Murtha, Pelosi, et.al.
Try and understand actual history instead of the nonsense you have read.
How about we elect candidates who will DEFEND this nation and will not kowtow to dictators and other morons? How about having real candidates who will put the nation first instead of feathering their nest?
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Ell Em
12-03-09, 05:06 PM |
Afghanistan Quagmire
Well Bill thanks for the reply. I think you must be a Repuclican. I have lived through the Spanish civil war, the secondworld war, The Korean war, the Iraq war, and now the Afghan war. Can you tell me and the many readers what the end result will be.Escalation is a dangerous game with no one knowing what the future holds. The American people oppose this conflict because they are tired of hapless leaders in the past and present who dont listen to public opinion as happens here in the UK. let all leaders listen to the voice of reason and get the hell out of that quagmire in Afghanistan before any more there are casualties.
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Pontotoc Bill
12-03-09, 06:28 PM |
Ell Em;171900:
Well Bill thanks for the reply. I think you must be a Repuclican. I have lived through the Spanish civil war, the secondworld war, The Korean war, the Iraq war, and now the Afghan war. Can you tell me and the many readers what the end result will be.Escalation is a dangerous game with no one knowing what the future holds. The American people oppose this conflict because they are tired of hapless leaders in the past and present who dont listen to public opinion as happens here in the UK. let all leaders listen to the voice of reason and get the hell out of that quagmire in Afghanistan before any more there are casualties.
Escalation is a dangerous game, but so is rolling over and playing dead. Remember the Munich Accord? British Appeasement of Adolf Hitler?
I’ll take confronting the danger now so that my children and grandchildren will NOT have to face it.
Your opinion is to stick your head in the sand, sing la-la-la, and hope for a change for the better. No realism is your view.
Sorry, but this is from a retired US Air Force officer, Wild Weasel IEWO. It is better to confront the danger now before it grows bigger.
As John Stuart Mills wrote (and your posts make me think it applies to you):
“War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic felling that believes nothing is worth war is much worse. A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight: nothing which he cares about more than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature who will never be free until made so and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."
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KHAN
12-03-09, 08:13 PM |
TO HELP AMERACA
YOU CAN GO DIRECTLY TO PAKISTAN, DIRECLTY TO THE PLACES, WHERE IS THE ACTUAL PROBLEM IS. PLEASE SENT TROOP TO CROSS THE BOARDER, AND REMOVE THE T, FROM ROOT.
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