Home pagePress CenterIn the Media Julianne Smith, director of the CSIS Europe Program, was quoted by the New York Times, "Pentagon Considers Adding Forces in Afghanistan."
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Julianne Smith, director of the CSIS Europe Program, was quoted by the New York Times, "Pentagon Considers Adding Forces in Afghanistan."
The Pentagon is considering sending as many as 7,000 more American troops to Afghanistan next year to make up for a shortfall in contributions from NATO allies, senior Bush administration officials said.
They said the step would push the number of American forces there to roughly 40,000, the highest level since the war began more than six years ago, and would require at least a modest reduction in troops from Iraq.
The planning began in recent weeks, reflecting a growing resignation to the fact that NATO is unable or unwilling to contribute more troops despite public pledges of an intensified effort in Afghanistan from the presidents and prime ministers who attended an alliance summit meeting in Bucharest, Romania, last month.
Julianne Smith, director of the Europe Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a nonpartisan policy institute, said the meeting did not live up to the expectations or the public celebration during the session.
“If you look at what the NATO commanders got, it’s hard to see the silver lining,” she said. Read the article
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