Up To 30,000 New US Troops In Afghanistan By Mid-2009: Mullen

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen, U.S. Navy, addresses service members assigned to the U.S. Special Operations Command at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Fla., on Oct. 31, 2008. DoD photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Chad J. McNeeley, U.S. Navy. (Released)

From Yahoo News/AFP:

KABUL (AFP) – The United States plans to send between 20,000 and 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan by next summer, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, said here Saturday.

General David McKiernan, the US commander in Afghanistan, has asked for more than 20,000 extra US soldiers to counter a rise in insurgent violence, seven years after US forces first invaded the country to oust the Taliban from power.

But the potential deployment of 30,000 extra troops discussed by Mullen -- the highest-ranking US military officer -- would nearly double the US military presence in Afghanistan, which currently stands at 31,000.

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My Comment: As I had posted a few hours ago .... my tallies do not reach 20,000 extra soldiers for the Afghan surge, but higher. Adm. Mullen has just confirmed it.