Swordsmyth
08-24-2017, 01:04 AM
The Pentagon has admitted the average number of U.S. troops fighting in Afghanistan at any given time is much higher than initially thought.
Officially, there are 8,400 American troops in the country as part of Operation Resolute Support and U.S. Forces Afghanistan. But the Defense Department says the actual number may be as high as 12,000.
That’s nearly a 50 percent increase, and doesn’t take into account the 4,000 extra troops Donald Trump is reportedly planning to deploy (http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/08/21/trump-to-unveil-afghanistan-strategy-in-pivotal-speech.html). According to the Pentagon, the increased numbers are due to units transitioning in and out of deployment, as well as soldiers on temporary duty shorter than 120 days, who weren’t previously counted.
Secretary of Defense James Mattis said last week that even he wasn’t sure what the total number of troops serving in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan was.
“We had to change how they were accounting for them, because there were so many different pockets,” Mattis said (https://www.nbcnews.com/news/military/u-s-has-thousands-more-troops-afghanistan-pentagon-admits-n795141). “We in this building couldn’t figure it out. I had to change the accounting process because we couldn’t figure out how many troops we had there.”
More at: https://thinkprogress.org/pentagon-has-been-underreporting-the-number-of-u-s-troops-in-afghanistan-by-thousands-5828d61ca666/
Officially, there are 8,400 American troops in the country as part of Operation Resolute Support and U.S. Forces Afghanistan. But the Defense Department says the actual number may be as high as 12,000.
That’s nearly a 50 percent increase, and doesn’t take into account the 4,000 extra troops Donald Trump is reportedly planning to deploy (http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/08/21/trump-to-unveil-afghanistan-strategy-in-pivotal-speech.html). According to the Pentagon, the increased numbers are due to units transitioning in and out of deployment, as well as soldiers on temporary duty shorter than 120 days, who weren’t previously counted.
Secretary of Defense James Mattis said last week that even he wasn’t sure what the total number of troops serving in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan was.
“We had to change how they were accounting for them, because there were so many different pockets,” Mattis said (https://www.nbcnews.com/news/military/u-s-has-thousands-more-troops-afghanistan-pentagon-admits-n795141). “We in this building couldn’t figure it out. I had to change the accounting process because we couldn’t figure out how many troops we had there.”
More at: https://thinkprogress.org/pentagon-has-been-underreporting-the-number-of-u-s-troops-in-afghanistan-by-thousands-5828d61ca666/