Pentagon: 11,000 troops are on the ground in Afghanistan
(Worthy News) – The Pentagon for the first time revealed Tuesday that nearly 11,000 American troops are still on the ground in Afghanistan, roughly 40 percent more than what Defense Department leaders had acknowledged since President Obama ended the U.S. combat mission three years earlier.
The revised troop figures, announced by the Pentagon on Monday, were the result of a new method of accounting for U.S. soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines serving in Afghanistan, Pentagon press secretary Dana White said Monday. Defense Secretary James Mattis ordered the department to adopt the new troop-counting method, as part of the Pentagon’s review of its operations in Afghanistan and South Asia.
The larger number, which comes as President Trump has authorized sending even more U.S. forces into the 16-year-long war, means the U.S. could have as many as 15,000 troops deployed in Afghanistan within the next few months, despite the doubts then-candidate Trump raised about the mission on the campaign trail in 2016. [ Source (Read More…) ]