Powell: US military too strained for Iraq troop increase

WASHINGTON - Former US secretary of state and top army general Colin Powell said Sunday the US military was ‘about broken’ and too strained to sustain an increase in US troops in Iraq.

Speaking on CBS television’s Face the Nation program, Powell said he had not seen anything that would justify a reported White House plan to increase US forces in Iraq by 20,000 or more, from the current 140,000.

‘I am not persuaded that another surge of troops into Baghdad for the purposes of suppressing this communitarian violence, this civil war, will work. ... If I were still chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, my first question to whoever is proposing it, what mission is it these troops are to accomplish?’

Powell said the US army is not large enough to secure Baghdad, and should not be used as policeman for the city, and meanwhile questioned whether more troops would make a difference in the pursuit of insurgents.

‘There needs to be a clear mission that these additional troops are going to be performing.’

Read the rest at the Khaleej Times

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