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SIERRA VISTA — Army officials will be listening to what the civilian community does to support Fort Huachuca at a listening session Tuesday. “We need to tell the Department of the Army all the good we are already doing to help soldiers and their families and retirees and their families,” Mayor Rick Mueller said. Tuesday will be the second listening session concerning a potential reduction of soldiers and civil service employees at the post. The cuts are part of an overall “reduction in force,” that the Army is charged with carrying out, according to Maj. Gen. Robert P. Ashley, the...

The number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan has surpassed the number in Iraq for the first time since 2003. As of Monday, there were 94,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan and 92,000 in Iraq, according to the Defense Department. The move occurred slightly ahead of schedule; it had been expected to take place in June. U.S. troop strength in Afghanistan is expected to reach 98,000 by August, up from about 30,000 when President Barack Obama took office. Once all the troops are in place, NATO and Afghan security forces are expected to concentrate on 121 key districts in Afghanistan, according to...

President Obama is within weeks of making a decision on sending additional troops to Afghanistan, Chief White House Advisor David Axelrod said on "Face the Nation" Sunday.

Obama Requests More Options for Troop Levels The Washington post reported two officials as saying late Friday Obama asked the Pentagon's top generals to provide him with more options for troop levels in Afghanistan. President Barack Obama grappled Friday with the costs and consequences of a long-term commitment to Afghanistan, but reached no decisions about troop levels, a top aide said, as military advisers briefed the president on an armed services already taxed by challenges around the globe. The president reviewed his options with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and made clear he wants at least one more meeting with...

WASHINGTON — A Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee says more troops are needed in Afghanistan and is warning that the U.S. must not 'Rumsfeld' the war.

FORT LESLEY J. MCNAIR, D.C., Sept. 9, 2008 – The United States will continue to reduce its troop strength in Iraq, but will increase its footprint in Afghanistan, President Bush said here today. The president accepted the recommendations of military leaders to reduce U.S. troop levels in Iraq by 8,000 through January. If security conditions continue to improve in the country, further reductions will be possible, Bush said at the National Defense University. Bush also announced plans to deploy a Marine battalion to train Afghan National Army troops in November and to send an Army brigade to Afghanistan in January....

via translation - ALERT - The American troops out of Iraq end 2011 BAGHDAD - U.S. troops have left Iraq at the end of 2011 under the security agreement negotiated with the Americans who should be further examined by the highest authorities of Iraq, announced Friday by AFP Chief negotiators Iraqis. "At the end of 2011, American troops will withdraw from Iraq," Mohammed told al-Haj Hammoud.

KABUL (Reuters) - Presidential hopeful Barack Obama called the situation in Afghanistan "precarious and urgent" on Sunday and said Washington should start planning to transfer more troops there from Iraq. The Illinois Democrat spoke from Afghanistan on the CBS program "Face the Nation" after meeting privately with Afghan President Hamid Karzai on an overseas trip meant to bolster his foreign policy credentials. "We have to understand that the situation is precarious and urgent here in Afghanistan and I believe this has to be the central focus, the central front, in our battle against terrorism," Obama said.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Two top Pentagon officials said Wednesday that they expect to be able to recommend troops cuts in Iraq this fall and will try to increase troops in Afghanistan. Adm. Mike Mullen, right, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates speak at the Pentagon on Wednesday. The remarks came after U.S. soldiers were killed Sunday in the deadliest firefight in Afghanistan in recent years. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said he had ruled out extending the deployment of U.S. forces in Afghanistan or making tours longer than 15 months, leaving few options other than shifting troops who were destined for...

ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico (Reuters) - Republican presidential hopeful John McCain sharply criticized the flagging U.S. war effort in Afghanistan on Tuesday and vowed to turn it around if elected, starting with sending more U.S. troops. "That's no way to run a war," said McCain, complaining that security in Afghanistan has deteriorated and the status quo is not acceptable. McCain waded into the debate over what to do in Afghanistan, a war begun after the September 11 attacks that Democrats charge has been neglected by the Bush administration as it concentrates on Iraq. An attack on a U.S. base near the...

WASHINGTON — Senator McCain will announce plans today for an Iraq-style "surge" of troops in Afghanistan. An adviser to the campaign told The New York Sun that, in a speech to be delivered in Albuquerque, N.M., the senator will call for an increase in combat troops and the creation of a special Afghanistan tsar to coordinate policy toward the country. "There will be a surge for Afghanistan. It will be moving combat troops in and applying the lessons from Iraq and the strategy that was successful in Iraq and taking that to Afghanistan," this official said.

Sixty years ago this month, the top story in campaign year 1948 was not the big poll lead of Republican nominee Thomas Dewey or the plight of President Harry Truman. It was the Berlin airlift. Air Force generals said that there was no way planes could ferry the 8 million pounds of food and coal Berlin would need every day. Secretary of State George Marshall and Joint Chiefs Chairman Omar Bradley, two of America's most respected generals, felt Berlin was indefensible and we should withdraw. One man disagreed. President Harry Truman, in one crucial meeting after another, said, "We're not...

Gen. David H. Petraeus said he expects to recommend further cuts in the size of U.S. forces in Iraq before he gives up command in September. The military is currently cutting its forces down to 15 brigades, or about 140,000 troops. That drawdown is scheduled to be concluded by July. Last month, President Bush endorsed Petraeus' call for a 45-day pause before the troop reduction. Petraeus noted those further cuts may be small but said that he always intended to make constant reassessments of force level requirements. "My sense is that I will be able to make a recommendation at...

WASHINGTON, April 11, 2008 – Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said today he is confident there will be fewer U.S. troops in Iraq in 2009, but added that the drawdown process has gone somewhat more slowly than he thought it would last year. This comes as Army Gen. David H. Petraeus returns to Iraq after a week of testimony and meetings in and around the nation’s capital to begin what Gates called a “major force realignment” there. Gates and Joint Chiefs Chairman Navy Adm. Mike Mullen met with journalists at the Pentagon today. All five surge brigades are expected...

BAGRAM, Afghanistan — U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan now top 32,000, the highest number of American forces in the country since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion that toppled the Taliban. The rise in force levels is a response to an increasingly violent insurgency that is spreading into new parts of the country. The top American commander in Afghanistan has requested three more brigades — about 7,500 more troops — and the Pentagon has promised that more U.S. troops will be sent to Afghanistan next year. Following the 2001 ouster of the Taliban, the U.S. had fewer than 10,000 troops in the...

Report: Petraeus Won't Request Troop Cuts Stars and Stripes | March 26, 2008 The top U.S. military commander and top diplomat in Iraq have presented plans to President Bush that would not include further troop cutbacks after "surge" brigades are brought home this summer, according to news reports published Tuesday. The New York Times reported that -- in a secure videoconference with the Bush and the National Security Council -- Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker recommended putting off troop-level decisions for several months after the departure of five extra brigades. That timeline would leave decisions on major...

MANAMA, Bahrain - President Bush said Saturday he is open to the possibility of slowing or stopping plans to bring home more U.S. troops from Iraq, defying domestic demands to speed the withdrawals. Updated on war developments, Bush said the U.S. presence in Iraq will outlast his presidency. Bush said any decision about troop levels "needs to be based upon success," but that there was no discussion about specific numbers when he was briefed by Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Baghdad. The president was cheered by news that Iraq's...

CAMP ARIFJAN, Kuwait - Facing another decision about U.S. troop levels in Iraq by spring, President Bush said Saturday it is "fine with me" if generals recommend no more reductions than those already planned to drop the force level to about 130,000.Traveling for the next few days among Sunni Arab-ruled states jittery about the rising influence and ambitions of Shiite-majority Iran, Bush used part of remarks here that were focused on Iraq to put Tehran on notice — again."Iran's role in fomenting violence has been exposed," he said as he listed successes the U.S. is helping to bring about in...

The Pentagon expects that more than 40,000 U.S. troops will be home by July if the situation in Iraq remains stable, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said yesterday. Declining to cite exact troop numbers, Mr. Gates told reporters that five brigade combat teams are scheduled to be home by July. Defense officials said there are nearly 4,000 front-line troops for each plus about that number of support personnel, who are expected to redeploy as well. "The situation on the ground, I think, makes it likely that General [David H.] Petraeus will be able to decide and bring out the first...

BAGHDAD, Nov. 24 — The first substantive drawdown of American troops in Iraq has begun, as the first members of a brigade in Diyala Province have started to leave, American military officials in Baghdad said Saturday. Col. David W. Sutherland of the Third Brigade Combat Team, First Cavalry Division, whose soldiers have been working in Diyala since last November, said all 5,000 of his troops would be gone by mid-December. However, because of continuing violence in Diyala, another brigade that is already in the country will take the place of the Third Brigade Combat Team. The replacement soldiers are already...