What the General Meant to Say

A UK Telegraph reporter misinterpreted what General George Casey, Chief of Staff of the Army, was trying to say in his discussion about Army force levels and deployments in the Middle East. I don't think Casey was trying to say that we're going to be in Iraq for another decade, but no one in the new administration has really laid out a change in strategy for Afghanistan.

Gen George Casey said the world remained “dangerous and unpredictable”, and the Pentagon must plan for extended US combat and stability operations in both Iraq and Afghanistan that could deploy 50,000 US military personnel for a decade.

"Global trends are pushing in the wrong direction," Gen Casey said. "They fundamentally will change how the army works."

His planning envisioned combat troops in Iraq and Afghanistan for a decade as part of a sustained American commitment to fighting extremism and terrorism in the Middle East.
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Emphasising [sic] he was not a policy maker, he was adamant he did not intend to contradict Obama administration policy, which is to bring US combat forces home from Iraq in 2010. The US and Iraq have agreed that all American forces would leave by 2012.
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He said his could foresee ten combat brigades plus command and support forces committed to the two wars. Brigades tend to number three to five thousand.

He also said the US had to be careful about what assets get deployed to Afghanistan. "Anything you put in there would be in there for a decade," he said.

When he said "assets," I believe he meant building infrastructure, transporting heavy equipment, and bringing in material in addition to personnel. It would be a significant investment to move anything to Afghanistan, given the tenuous logistics infrastructure there. Casey has a point here, that there has been no change in orders so the Army will continue to act as if the Bush administration's strategy - such that it is - is still in effect. That's not a good thing. And as SecDef Gates notes, the American patience for this endless adventure is growing short.

The sooner that the Obama administration lays out its new strategy to get us out of Afghanistan, the better. Enough of these attempts to craft Afghanistan into a democracy - it ain't gonna happen. We smacked down the Taliban and al Qaeda, time to pull out and contain the threat from outside that country. We can better stabilize Pakistan if we weren't based in Afghanistan, causing civilian casualties from bombings and fueling resentment in both countries against us. Hat tip to Ray for the article!

UPDATE: The Associated Press seem to be operating under the same confusion.

Comments

[Ravenor]

100% agree with your concluding statement. Get all of our forces out of Afg and let the surrounding countries deal with it.

[bucket trucks]

I am sure that these men from the forces have special training also for heavy equipments like the ones they are having for their armory. Equipment like the bucket trucks needs special training also.