Kabul, Afghanistan – U.S. military commanders have drafted plans to lower the number of American troops in Afghanistan by roughly 20 percent next year if NATO-led troops from Europe continue to widen their role in securing the country, according to senior officers here.
A reduction of as many as 4,000 of the nearly 20,000 American personnel in Afghanistan would be the largest drop in a force that generally has grown since the U.S.-led invasion in late 2001 drove the Taliban from power and routed al-Qaeda fighters.
The U.S. plan is contingent on an improving political and security situation in Afghanistan and on decisions still to be made by NATO about what types of forces it would commit and its willingness for them to engage in combat against insurgents, the officers said.
“It makes sense that as NATO forces go in, and they’re more in number, that we could drop some of the U.S. requirement somewhat,” Army Gen. John Abizaid, the senior U.S. commander in the region, said in an interview here.
He stressed that no decision had been made to shrink the U.S. military presence.
The planning comes amid intensified fighting in Afghanistan this year that has killed more than 50 Americans, the highest death toll in any year since the troops arrived.
U.S. officials say the increase is due in large part to aggressive moves by U.S. forces to root out guerrillas.
Although U.S. commanders expect the fighting to subside when harsh winter weather sets in, they anticipate another round of battles in the spring.
“I think you have to get used to the cycle of fighting in Afghanistan,” Abizaid said.
Even so, he and other commanders expressed confidence that the threat posed by the Taliban movement will dwindle as the Afghan government’s authority spreads and Afghan forces become more capable.
