美国国家公共电台 NPR Pentagon Questioned Over Blackout On War Zone Troop Numbers

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In the past, if you wanted to know how many U.S. troops there were in war zones like Iraq or Afghanistan, you could find that information at a public Pentagon website that was updated every three months. But then, late last year, the Pentagon stopped posting those numbers for Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan. Now that is prompting questions on Capitol Hill. NPR's David Welna has the story.

DAVID WELNA, BYLINE¹: Before the Senate approved him last week to be the next commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, Lieutenant² General Scott Miller³ got a tough question at his confirmation⁴ hearing. Rhode Island Democrat⁵ Jack⁶ Reed wanted to know why the flow of information about U.S. operations in Afghanistan has recently taken a nosedive.

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JACK REED: What's your view on the detail of information that should be released?

WELNA: Miller assured the Armed Services Committee's top Democrat that if confirmed, he'd be transparent⁷ with that panel.

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AUSTIN MILLER: As for details that are being - on hold, I need to - we'd need to go forward and understand why we're holding back that information.

WELNA: The Trump⁸ administration has been sending conflicting messages. Last August, Defense⁹ Secretary Jim Mattis assured reporters the Pentagon would be more transparent than it had been about reporting troop levels in Afghanistan.

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JIM MATTIS: Frankly¹⁰, I had to change the accounting¹¹ process because we couldn't figure out how many troops we had there. So believe me; I understand the problem. But once we know how many there are, hopefully, we've told you what - about what there is.

WELNA: The next week, President Trump essentially¹² said the opposite.

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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We will not talk about numbers of troops or our plans for further military activities.

WELNA: Trump added that America's enemies should never know its plans. But a week later, the director of the Joint¹³ Chiefs of Staff, Lieutenant General Kenneth McKenzie, reiterated¹⁴ Mattis' promise of greater transparency.

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KENNETH MCKENZIE: When I say transparent, I'm talking about accounting for force levels that include those forces that are temporarily deployed¹⁵. They will now be reported.

WELNA: And the next quarterly report of the Defense Manpower Data Center did have those numbers. But the force levels not just for Afghanistan, but for Iraq and Syria, as well, have been left out of all the updates since then. Readers are asked to direct any questions about those countries to the Office of the Secretary of Defense. That's where, after two weeks of unanswered queries¹⁶, I finally got this explanation for the omission¹⁷ of war zone troop levels from Pentagon spokesman Major Adrian Galloway.

ADRIAN RANKINE-GALLOWAY: We have to make sure that the American people know what their forces are doing, but we have to protect our forces, as well. And a part of that is making sure that we keep a handle on what information we release to the public in general.

WELNA: Five House Democrats¹⁸ wrote Secretary Mattis, demanding he rescind¹⁹ the new policy of excluding U.S. troop numbers in war zones from the Pentagon's quarterly reports. One of those Democrats is Vermont's Peter Welch.

PETER WELCH: In the past, there's at least been transparency. Now there isn't. And whether the number's going up or down, whether there's success or failure, it's completely unknown.

WELNA: Unknown even to members of Congress. Here's what South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham had to say about the Pentagon's suppression of troop numbers.

LINDSEY GRAHAM: Well, I'll give that with you. I didn't know that.

WELNA: Pentagon spokesman Galloway did give me a number for U.S. troops currently in Afghanistan - 14,000. But he added this caveat²⁰.

RANKINE-GALLOWAY: I can tell you that that number is approximate. It is very close to the real number. I do know the real numbers, but unfortunately, that - the real number is classified, and I just can't talk about it.

JASON DEMPSEY: I've yet to hear anybody articulate one instance where those numbers led to an operational risk.

WELNA: That's retired²¹ Army Lieutenant Colonel Jason Dempsey, who did two tours in Afghanistan and another in Iraq. He is now at the Center for a New American Security and has written extensively on civilian-military relations.

DEMPSEY: When we decide we're going to be just like every other insecure, two-bit, tin-pot dictator country, and that we've got to keep everything under wraps and we can't telegraph our moves, what we're essentially saying is, we don't want an engaged public.

WELNA: Former Pentagon adviser²² Loren DeJonge Schulman says numbers are key to people's awareness²³ of ongoing²⁴ conflicts.

LOREN DEJONGE SCHULMAN: Numbers are kind of a bad shorthand for talking about American commitments, but they're a useful starting point for a conversation. And if we don't start those conversations, Americans will have no way of knowing we have thousands of troops at risk overseas. We don't talk about that. The president never talks about it.

WELNA: All while those numbers under Trump have actually gone up.

David Welna, NPR News, Washington.

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