I guess one man’s thirty thousand is another man’s thirty five thousand, or maybe more?

Just the other day, President Obama announced his determination to dispatch another 30 thousand U.S. troops to Afghanistan, bringing our total troop deployment to over 100 thousand. He says he will start to pull them out in 18 months, though he doesn’t say at what rate, at what point they will all be out of the country and what conditions on the ground must be met in order for him to keep with this tentative timetable. Guess precision just isn’t the President’s thing?

But a few minutes ago, I came across a newspaper story on the web that said that the 30 thousand figure is actually not the true figure, that Obama has given approval to the Defense Department to add as many as maybe five thousand more to the mix–mostly as trainers and advisers, rather than combat forces, but military troops nonetheless. And, the decision to add the extra five thousand apparently can be done without any sort of public announcement because it has been pre-approved.

So much for transparency in government.

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