Mattis was a terrific choice. Finally, someone who gets the military and his responsibility to it in his decisions.
Via Daily Caller:
The Pentagon revealed Wednesday, at the direction of Secretary of Defense James Mattis, there are approximately 11,000 U.S. service members in Afghanistan.
Prior to the announcement, the Pentagon would only acknowledge approximately 8,400 troops accounted for under force management level orders from the Obama administration.
“This way of doing business is over,” White flatly declared, adding, “We owe the American people as much transparency as possible.”
Pentagon Chief Spokesperson Dana W. White and Joint Staff Director Lt. Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr. emphasized the Obama-era policy affected combat readiness in Afghanistan and did not tell the whole truth as to the number of U.S. forces in Afghanistan to the American people.
The previous administration’s accounting policies did not disclose the thousands of troops deployed on “temporary status” to support ongoing U.S. and NATO missions. The new accounting procedure will continue to protect “sensitive” missions such as special forces, McKenzie explained. The Obama-era policy also forced commanders to deploy incomplete units to Afghanistan in order to remain under their force management level cap.