To Double, or Not to Double

Senators and advisers of the military want Obama to double forces in Afghanistan. The supporters want to boost the "Afghan National Army and police" to 400,000 employees from the 175,000. Joseph Lieberman chairman of Homeland Security Committee and Carl Levin chairman of the Armed Services Committee wrote that postponement to support Afghan forces would prevent the U.S. from internal improvements.

General Stanley McChrysal the U.S. and NATO commander recommends a faster expansion of Afghan forces in a report he will give to Robert Gates head of the Defense Department and Anders Fogh Rasmussen general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. In his report he would not mention how many more NATO or U.S. troops would be needed to train the Afghan forces.

In a letter dated May 19 Obama 17 Democrats and Republicans urged doubling Afghan forces. The U.S. already agreed to have 134,000 personnel and 96,800 police by 2011. Though the Defense Department has requested $7.5 billion to fund the expansion in 2010.

Obama is reluctant to the idea of training and equipping 170,000 additional forces because it will increase the cost. Building Afghan forces is much cheaper than sending American soldiers to Afghanistan. The cost of sending one American soldier equals the cost of training 60 Afghan s.

Obama’s pledged 17,000 U.S. ground troops and 4,000 trainers would be in Afghanistan by the end of September. During this period of time there are 62,000 U.S. troops and 40,500 NATO forces in Afghanistan that is the highest number since the war to overthrow the Taliban in 2001