KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said here Thursday that the Pentagon, which plans to send 20,000 additional troops to Afghanistan, was trying to get thousands of them into the country as soon as next spring.
The soldiers were requested by Gen. David McKiernan, the top commander in Afghanistan. The first of them, about 3,500 to 4,000 troops, are to arrive next month.
Gates said he hoped to deploy an additional two combat brigades by spring as part of an effort to fight growing violence and chaos. Pentagon officials have said it would take 12 to 18 months to get all 20,000 troops to Afghanistan. The U.S. currently has about 34,000 troops in the country.
Later, Gates was critical of NATO for allowing the U.S. to bear a disproportionate burden in Afghanistan, where about 30,000 foreign troops operate under a NATO command. The New York Times
