Afghanistan - justice

US military chief thinks more troops required for Afghanistan

Article published on the 2009-09-15 Latest update 2009-09-15 15:27 TU

A US soldier looking out of US Marine helicopter near Khan Neshin in Helmand province, Afghanistan, 13 September 2009.
(Photo: Reuters/Goran Tomasevic)

US President Barack Obama's military chief said Tuesday that winning the war in Afghanistan will "probably" require sending more US troops there and thousands more trainers for Afghan forces, Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. The London-based think-tank the International Institute of Strategic Studies disagrees.

"We can get there. We can accomplish the mission we've been assigned. But we will need resources matched to the strategy," Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday.

Mullen said he and Defense Secretary Robert Gates had not yet given Obama their troop-level recommendation because they awaited a formal request from the top US and NATO military commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal.

The admiral said he backed calls for increasing training of Afghan security forces but emphasized that this would not be enough to win the conflict. Such an effort would require as many as 2,000-4,000 more trainers on top of the roughly 6,000 now on the ground, he estimates.

But researchers at the British think-tank, the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London said US-led forces had largely driven Al-Qaeda-linked groups out of Afghanistan into Pakistan and they should reduce their numbers accordingly.

Allied forces in Afghanistan should cut troop numbers and focus on preventing it becoming a haven for terrorism, or risk losing support for the mission, they said.

Meanhwile, US citizen support for the fighting in Afghanistan is waning. A new poll conducted by CNN Opinion Research showed record levels of opposition to the eight-year-old conflict, with 58 percent of respondents saying they opposed the conflict, while 39 percent were in favour.

On Monday, the US military said it will allow prisoners at the Bagram air base north of the capital Kabul, to defend themselves in a review of the cases against them.

The inmates would be aided by a uniformed "personal representative" who would "guide them through this administrative process, to help gather witness statements," said Bryan Whitman, a spokesman for the US defence minstry, the Pentagon.

“It’s something that we had used in Iraq to help us manage the detainee population and ultimately reduce the detainee population by ensuring that we are only holding those that are the most dangerous threats,” said Whitman.

Last month, a top US major general, Douglas Stone, cited by US public broadcaster, NPR, suggested that as many as 400 of the 600 inmates should be released. He is reported to have said that they posed no threat to the United States,and recommended that the prison be abandoned.

Bagram air base in Afghanistan has been used since 2002 as a holding centre for prisoners captured outside of Afghanistan and Iraq.

But inmates have had no access to lawyers and have not be able to collect evidence to challenge their detention. Human and civic rights groups have expressed concern over the detention conditions at Bagram, and their legality.