3-star: Surge could take 11 months to complete - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

3-star: Surge could take 11 months to complete

KABUL — The second-highest ranking U.S. general in Afghanistan said Monday the planned rapid escalation of American troops would take longer than expected to carry out, indicating it will probably be nine to 11 months before they are all in place.

Lt. Gen. David Rodriguez said during a briefing in the Afghan capital that the slower schedule results from the logistical challenges the military faces in bringing in so many forces so quickly. In launching a 30,000-troop surge, the Obama administration had initially said it expected that all of troops would be in place within six months.

President Barack Obama had not cited that figure directly, saying in his Dec. 1 nationally-televised speech that the troops would “deploy in the first part of 2010 — the fastest pace possible — so that they can target the insurgency.” White House aides had indicated the hope was for all the new troops to be in place by summer.

Military officials had already been hinting broadly in recent weeks that the escalation might take longer, but Rodriguez’ comments indicated that the notion of a six-month rapid escalation was not realistic and that reality is now setting in.

Rodriguez said the nine- to 11-month timeline was his own estimate. That rough schedule is the most specific expression thus far of the emerging consensus that the surge will stretch well into the fall.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates and other top officials have said the bulk of the new forces will be in place this summer, and Rodriguez agreed.

Officials also said that plans to begin a process of withdrawal by July 2011 are not affected by the delay.

In Washington, Marine Corps Col. David Lapan, a Pentagon spokesman, said the plan has always been to put the bulk of the 30,000 forces in place by the end of summer — with a “few thousand” not deployed until in fall.

“Nothing has changed other than to figure out how to do it,” Lapan said.