Admiral Mullen: 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan

by 158 | February 9, 2009 at 04:30 pm

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Thirty thousand more will be

enough to secure cities and roads,

mostly, but will not be nearly enough

to defeat the Taliban. This looks much

like Iraq 5 years ago.

Mullen's comments mark the first time he has capped the number of soldiers to be sent to Afghanistan amid some predictions that the U.S. will be there for at least a decade.

An estimated 33,000 U.S. troops currently are in Afghanistan, and the Pentagon is set to announce at least three more brigades — about 16,000 soldiers — to be deployed in coming months. In all, the Pentagon said it expects to send about 60,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan.

By comparison, about 146,000 U.S. troops have been sent to Iraq.