Pentagon wants to extend Afghan surge till fall 2012

Military officials say electoral schedule has nothing to do with the proposal maintain troop surge until fall of 2012.

WASHINGTON:

The US military is asking President Barack Obama to maintain its troop surge in Afghanistan until the fall of 2012, a month before a scheduled withdrawal, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

The proposed timeline would mean that the president could promise large troop reductions to a war-weary public just ahead of the November 2012 presidential elections in which he seeks a second term, but military officials told the Journal that the electoral schedule had nothing to do with their proposal.

Instead, they said they were focusing on placing as much pressure as possible on the Taliban and the violent eastern provinces bordering Pakistan, especially during the next two warm-weather fighting seasons.

The United States plans on leaving only a “small fraction” of the overall forces after December 2014, when security will be handed over to the Afghans.

Obama ordered the 33,000 extra forces in December 2009 to throw a wrench in an emboldened Taliban’s momentum, bringing the total deployed to 100,000. 

Published in The Express Tribune, June 18^th, 2011.