US report urges more troops for Afghanistan
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Top US commander in Afghanistan Stanley A. McChrystal said explicitly in a classified report that the Afghan war "will likely result in failure" without increasing US troop levels in that country.
The report was submitted to the Obama administration on Aug. 30 and the Washington Post disclosed its content on Monday after obtaining a copy of the report.
"Failure to gain the initiative and reverse insurgent momentum in the near-term (next 12 months) -- while Afghan security capacity matures -- risks an outcome where defeating the insurgency is no longer possible," the report says.
While saying "success is still achievable," it warns that without more forces and the rapid implementation of a genuine counterinsurgency strategy, defeat is likely.
The report describes the Afghan government as being "riddled with corruption" and an international force being "undermined by tactics that alienate civilians."
The report's call for sending more troops to Afghanistan could intensify a debate in the United States in which leading Democratic lawmakers have expressed reluctance about committing more troops to an increasingly unpopular war.
According to plans which US President Barack Obama have already announced earlier this year, US troop levels in Afghanistan will grow to 68,000 later this year.
However, many military commanders and analysts argued that number is still too small to achieve the US objective.
Obama said last week that he won't decide whether to send more troops until he has "absolute clarity about what the strategy is going to be."
(Xinhua News Agency September 22, 2009)
