Army chief of staff Gen. Ray Odierno recommended a troop level between 8,000 and 9,000 in post-2014 Afghanistan during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Tuesday.
"It depends on the type of missions you want [the troops] to do," Odierno said while responding to questions from Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R., Ga.). "I think we want to do training and advising at higher levels, I think we want to be able to have special operation capabilities on the ground. My opinion is somewhere around 9,000, 8,000 is probably about the right number. We're continuing to work that and I leave that up to the commander on the ground, Gen. Dunford."
Gen. Joseph F. Dunford, Jr., the top coalition commander in Afghanistan, would not give a specific recommandation for the number of troops needed post-2014 last week but did comment that having no troops, as was recommended by a White House adviser, would "undermine our campaign success."
