Bush Plans To Increase Military’s Size
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
WASHINGTON — President Bush, working to recraft his strategy in Iraq, said yesterday that he plans to increase the size of the American military so it can fight a long-term war against terrorism.
In an interview with the Washington Post, Mr. Bush said he has asked Secretary of Defense Gates to report back to him with a plan to increase ground forces. The president did not say how many troops might be added, but he said he agreed with officials in the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill that the current military is being stretched too thin to deal with demands of fighting terrorism.
“I’m inclined to believe that we do need to increase our troops — the Army, the Marines,” Mr. Bush said in the Oval Office session. “And I talked about this to Secretary Gates, and he is going to spend some time talking to the folks in the building, come back with a recommendation to me about how to proceed forward on this idea.”
