Updated on
Summary
US Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin has urged President Barack Obama to quickly approve a plan to boost the size of the Afghanistan army and police.He urged Obama to sign off on the proposal to increase the Afghan National Army by about 35,000 to 208,000, and the police force by a similar number to 170,000 by 2012. He said that US military leaders, including Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen and NATO Commander Gen. David Petraeus have also supported the plan.Levin said Obama told him it was under consideration. I'm hopeful he will be listening to his military advisers on this one, Levin told a Capitol Hill news conference in which he was joined by Sens. Jack Reed, D-R.I., and Jon Tester, D-Mont. The three recently traveled to Afghanistan, Iraq and Yemen. Levin said the government of Pakistan may be an obstacle to approval of the plan that would create an Afghan security force of 378,000. He argued that the proposed increase is a key part of the ticket to success of our mission and is also the ticket to faster reductions of U.S. troops starting in July.
