Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/ex-nato-commander-calls-for-more-troops-in-afghanistan Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript The United States and Britain are considering deploying more troops to Afghanistan as other NATO countries have failed to send additional forces. Marine Corps Gen. James Jones, former top commander of NATO forces, discusses the possibility of increasing NATO troops. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. JIM LEHRER: Twenty-four thousand U.S. troops now serve in Afghanistan, 11,000 under NATO command. Gen. Jones has often called for an increase in the size of the NATO force. He is to retire on Feb. 1, after 40 years as a U.S. Marine. I talked with him earlier this evening.General, welcome.GEN. JAMES JONES, Former NATO Commander and Marine Commandant: Thank you. JIM LEHRER: How do you see the need for more troops in Afghanistan at this moment? GEN. JAMES JONES: Well, when I left the theater about a month ago, we were busily trying to raise the troop level to the level that nations had committed to the plan some six months before.And it's my feeling that, if the nations do, in fact, provide the troops they said they were going to provide in approving the operations plan, that that would certainly be sufficient to get us through the winter months and ready for the next year.So I don't think there's a crying need for a dramatic increase; I think that the nations should still resource the plan that they agreed to. JIM LEHRER: How many total, when it's all said and done? GEN. JAMES JONES: It would amount to about another 1,500 to 2,000 troops. JIM LEHRER: And it would be — what, there are 11,000 NATO, plus several more U.S. that are separate, right? GEN. JAMES JONES: Right. Well, the whole NATO commitment, including U.S., is about 22,000 troops almost. JIM LEHRER: And adding… GEN. JAMES JONES: And so we'd be adding about the 1,000 or 2,000 that are remaining from the basic plan, that nations agreed to provide and they just so far haven't kicked in. JIM LEHRER: What's the need, general? What's the need on the ground in Afghanistan for more troops? GEN. JAMES JONES: Well, the need is to actually stabilize a very important region in the south and in the east, where most of the fighting takes place.The real critical need in Afghanistan, of course, is to understand that it's not primarily a military problem. It's a problem of reconstruction and development across four or five main areas to include, number one — my number one threat in Afghanistan is the influence of narcotics on the culture, on the economy, and with regard to the support, the economic support that it gives to the insurgency.Number two is judicial reform. Number three is more police, more quality and more quantity of police. Number four is getting the Karzai government to be more visible inside of its own boundaries, to make sure that people understand that what they voted for two years ago is, in fact, a work in progress and it's coming, and it's coming in ways that will materially change their lives.And number five is to get Afghanistan and Pakistan working together to solve the border problem.