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BloombergNATO Commander Predicts More Alliance Troops for Afghanistan
January 14, 2010, 01:27 AM EST
By Viola Gienger and Tony Capaccio
Jan. 14 (Bloomberg) -- NATO’s top military commander expects the alliance will dispatch several thousand more troops to help fight the war in Afghanistan after an international conference in London later this month.
U.S. Navy Admiral James Stavridis, NATO’s supreme allied commander, said he intends to help meet the goal of providing about 10,000 more allied troops in addition to the 30,000 from the U.S. that President Barack Obama authorized on Nov. 30. Thus far, NATO members have offered 7,000 more troops.
“I’m very confident as we come out of the London conference, we’ll add to that,” Stavridis, 54, said in an interview yesterday. He said the aim is the 40,000 increase sought by General Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan. “My goal is to get him 40,000,” Stavridis said.
The additional troops are intended to bolster the allied campaign to turn back a resurgent Taliban, protect civilians and train Afghan forces. Deployments pledged so far will raise the number of allied troops in Afghanistan to about 145,000 by year’s end, including almost 100,000 U.S. forces.
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