The Pentagon”s top military officer visited Afghanistan on Monday just as the first of the 30,000 U.S. reinforcements are starting to deploy to the 8-year-old war.
Adm. Mike Mullen arrived in the Afghan capital of Kabul for a series of meetings with the government of President Hamid Karzai, a spokesman for the international coalition force said.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman said last week that 16,000 troops have received their orders for Afghanistan since President Barack Obama announced his new war strategy. The first to be deployed — a battalion of Marines — are to arrive in southern Afghanistan this week. Tens of thousands of tons of construction materials, winter gear and other equipment also are in the pipeline.
Mullen is one of a host of top military officials and world leaders to visit the country following the announcement of the new U.S. strategy for Afghanistan, which includes a plan to begin pulling troops out in July 2011. All the visitors have sought to reassure Afghan officials that international forces would not abandon the nation in 18 months.
