By GottaLaff
VoteVets called Obama's announcement "most welcome," praising the new administration for promoting "not just a military boost, but a strengthening of our diplomatic and political efforts there."Remissioning statement:
The troop deployment to Afghanistan will be announced as a "remissioning," meaning many, if not most, of the forces were already scheduled to deploy to Iraq but will now be diverted to Afghanistan.
[I]t will be politically characterized as a "drawdown" of U.S. military forces in Iraq, permitting the White House to claim in this one announcement that President Obama is making good on two campaign promises -- withdrawing forces from Iraq and sending additional forces to Afghanistan. [...]
According to senior Pentagon and military officials, President Obama today authorized the deployment of 17,000 additional forces to Afghanistan. Defense Secretary Gates, however, either has or will sign the actual deployment order for 12,000 forces, 8,000 Marines and 4,000 soldiers for Aghanistan.
The deployment order for the additional 4,000, most support personnel, will be signed at a later date when those individual units and troops are identified. The 17,000 number was in one of the earlier orders that was sent up chain of command then back down again a couple weeks ago.
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