WASHINGTON - -U.S. officials are planning to add up to 14,000 combat troops to the American force in Afghanistan by sending home support staff and underutilized soldiers and replacing them with infantry units, Pentagon officials said.
The plan represents a key step in a drive to beef up U.S.-led forces as the Obama administration presses to counter Taliban gains and demonstrate progress in Afghanistan amid crumbling American public support for the war effort. Forces that could be swapped out include units assigned to noncombat roles, such as guards or lookouts or those on clerical and support duty.
"It makes sense to get rid of the clerks and replace them with trigger-pullers," said one Pentagon official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the plans have not been announced.
The changes will not offset the potential need for more troops in the future, but could reduce the size of any request from Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top U.S. and allied commander, officials said.
The plan reflects the view that after eight years of war, much of the military bureaucracy that has built up no longer serves a useful purpose. Services performed by soldiers that are no longer considered crucial could be outsourced to contractors or eliminated, officials said.
However, the change is likely to increase the number of private contractors in the war zone, a source of controversy in Iraq and a growing issue in Afghanistan.
McChrystal has submitted a broad assessment of the Afghan war effort, calling the situation "serious." Details remain secret, but officials said the assessment did not contain a request for more troops. Such a request could be submitted in the coming weeks.
The planned changes in the U.S. troop mix are part of what military officials call a "force optimization" review, a critical step between the assessment and a request for more troops, designed to ensure that the existing force is operating as efficiently as possible.
Defense officials said they did not know how many positions and jobs might be eliminated in Afghanistan. But two officials estimated that the total could be 6,000 to 14,000 troops.
The review will scour the U.S. force for situations in which several people perform the same job or service members are less than fully utilized, for example, working a six-hour shift.
"Some people are doing jobs that are just not essential to the fight," a defense official said.
