On September 9, 2008, The Wall Street Journal reported that as many as 4,500 U.S. troops will redeploy from Iraq to Afghanistan by January, 2009. According to the Journal's Yochi J. Dreazen:
The planned changes represent an attempt to preserve Iraq's recent gains while freeing up modest numbers of additional forces for Afghanistan. Senior U.S. commanders in Afghanistan have said they need at least three additional combat brigades, or 10,500 to 12,000 more troops. The plan being announced by Mr. Bush would meet less than half of that request.Two weeks after the Journal report, ABC News investigative reporter Brian Ross wrote that:
US intelligence analysts are putting the finishing touches on a secret National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Afghanistan that reportedly describes the situation as “grim," but there are “no plans to declassify" any of it before the election, according to one US official familiar with the process.The eyes of America are on Congress as they attempt to deal with the growing crisis in the financial markets, but the economy is not our only priority issue. The situation in Afghanistan deserves more attention, in the news and in the presidential debates. That is reality.
[…]
Seth Jones, an expert on Afghanistan at the Rand Corporation think tank, called the situation in Afghanistan “dire."
“We are now at a tipping point, with about half of the country now penetrated by a range of Sunni militant groups including the Taliban and al Queida," Jones said. Jones said there is growing concern that Dutch and Canadian forces in Afghanistan would “call it quits."
“The US military would then need six, eight, maybe ten brigades but we just don't have that many," Jones said.
