Mullen: Balance needed for the military

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WASHINGTON, April 16 (UPI) -- The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff says he is trying to keep U.S. forces ready for future threats while adjusting the realistic capacity of the military.

Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, addressing an audience at the Heritage Foundation think tank in Washington, says that a key challenge facing the U.S. military is balancing the needs to reduce the amount of deployment time for troops, while at the same time maintaining a poised force to handle unknown future threats. Mullen says he is trying to take an even approach to dealing with the evolving needs of the U.S. military, the American Forces Press Service reported.

"How I approach this job is I really try to keep my focus on balance, given that uncertainty and that unpredictability," Mullen said in a statement.

Mullen also said that future troop decisions in Afghanistan are largely based on the security situation in Iraq. He said the U.S. military is currently heavily focused on operations in Iraq and that it is preventing additional troops from deploying to other needed areas around the world including Afghanistan.

"I think we need to be very clear about acknowledging that focus on Iraq, and acknowledging what we can do, what we've done and also what we haven't been able to do," Mullen said. "It is clearly having an affect on our ability to do other things."