Mattis directs Dunford to draw up final plan on Afghanistan troop increase

By Tony Bertuca / August 22, 2017 at 5:16 PM

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis was tight-lipped Tuesday on the number of additional U.S. troops slated to be sent to Afghanistan following President Trump's decision to increase operations there.

"I'd prefer not to go into those numbers right now," he said during a Baghdad press conference. "The first thing I have to do is level the bubble and account for everybody who's on the ground there now, the idea being that we're not going to have different buckets that we're accounting for them in, to tell you what the total number is."

Mattis said the White House has, however, set a ceiling on the number of troops who can be sent. Capitol Hill sources say lawmakers expect as many as 4,000 additional troops to be sent to reinforce the 8,400 the U.S. has in Afghanistan now.

Mattis said Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford was crafting a final plan for Afghanistan.

"There is a number that I'm authorized to go up to," Mattis said. "It may or may not be the number that's bandied about up until now. I've got to get the plan in from the chairman, and you saw that I directed him to get it to me here right away. . . . Let me look at the plan that the military brings me.  We've given them the strategic goals. They now have to line up the different things they have to do, and assign troops to each one of those efforts."

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