Military planners and White House budget analysts have been asked to provide US President George W. Bush with options for increasing US forces in Iraq by 20,000 troops or more, the New York Times reported on its Web site late on Friday.
Citing unnamed senior administration officials, the newspaper said the request indicates that the option of a major "surge" in troop strength is gaining ground as part of a White House strategy review.
Discussion of increasing the number of US troops has gone on in Washington for two months as a possible way to reverse the deteriorating security situation in Baghdad, the report said.
But the decision to ask the Joint Chiefs of Staff to specify where the additional forces could be found signifies a turn in the debate, according to the Times.
Officials said that the options being considered included the deployment of upwards of 50,000 additional troops, but that the political, training and recruiting obstacles to an increase larger than 20,000 to 30,000 troops would be prohibitive, the paper said.
At present, only about 17,000 US soldiers are actively involved in the effort to secure Baghdad, so even the low end of the proposals being considered by military and budget officials could more than double the size of that force, according to the report.
If adopted, such an increase would be a major departure from the current strategy advocated by General George Casey, which has stressed stepping up the training of Iraqi forces and handing off to them as soon as possible, the Times said.
The details of the plan under study by the White House are currently not known, the paper said.
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