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U.S. Tested Afghan Options in Secret War Game
Monday October 26th, 2009

FOX News -- The top Pentagon military officer conducted a secret war game this month to evaluate the two primary troop deployment options being considered by the Obama administration in a broad review of the war in Afghanistan, according to a report published Monday.

Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman, Adm. Mike Mullen, led the exercise to examine the likely outcome of sending 44,000 more troops into the country to conduct a full-scale counterinsurgency effort aimed at building a stable Afghan government that can control most of the country, The Washington Post reported, citing unnamed senior military officials.

But the exercise also examined inserting far fewer soldiers and Marines than Gen. Stanley McChrystal has sought -- 10,000 to 15,000 -- as part of an approach that the military has dubbed "counterterrorism plus," the Post said.

The Pentagon war game did not formally endorse either direction, the newspaper reported. Instead, it tried to gauge how Taliban fighters, Afghan and Pakistani governments and NATO allies might react to either of the scenarios.

Mullen has discussed the exercise's conclusions with senior White House officials who are involved with shaping the new strategy.

One of the exercise's key assumptions was that an increase of 10,000 to 15,000 troops would not give U.S. commanders the forces they need to take back havens from the Taliban in southern and western Afghanistan, The Post said.

"We were running out the options and trying to understand the implications from many different perspectives, including the enemy and the Afghan people," the paper quoted one senior military official as saying.

Republican and Democratic lawmakers differ over how quickly the administration should decide on whether to send more troops to Afghanistan, as that country gears up for a run-off to a disputed presidential election.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., appearing on CBS's "Face the Nation" Sunday, said, "Every day we delay will be a delay in this strategy succeeding." Agreed Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona on "Fox News Sunday": "It's been more than two months since the recommendation went to the president. And General McChrystal is talking about a 12-month time frame. So clearly, time is of the essence here."

Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, also on Fox, said, "I think it's taken too long. Why not follow the advice of his hand-picked general?"

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, pointed out on "Fox News Sunday" that former President George W. Bush took three months to decide on sending a surge in troops to Iraq. "No one pressured President Bush at that time to reach a decision more quickly than he felt he could," he said.

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