Mullen compares Afghan mission with Iraq surge

Wed Nov 4, 2009

The US-led mission in Afghanistan could resemble the troop surge in Iraq, possibly allowing a drawdown of troops in about two years, a top US commander says.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen said it was "reasonable" to look at the campaign in Iraq -- when additional American forces were sent to bolster security in 2007 -- as a guide for how Afghanistan could evolve.

"The timeline we've talked about is actually in a sense if I were to use the surge in Iraq, in 2006-2007, look where we are right now, sort of apply the same kind of timeline to Afghanistan as best we can tell," Mullen said at an event in Washington.

"And we think that's reasonable in terms of having the impact and then being able to thin our forces out and bring them back," he said, responding to a question about the future of the US military presence in Afghanistan.

But Mullen added that "we have to be careful about the direct comparisons between Iraq and Afghanistan."

US officials have tended to shy away from estimating how long it might take to gain the upper hand in Afghanistan and eventually hand over security duties to the Afghan forces.

Support for the war in Afghanistan is widening down in the US. According to a poll conducted by CNN in September, only 39 percent of Americans favor the war in Afghanistan, with 58 percent opposed to the mission.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/110478.html.