Jones: Current Afghan forces 'robust'

WASHINGTON, Oct. 4 (UPI) -- The United States and its allies already have a "robust" force in Afghanistan, White House national security adviser James Jones said Sunday.

Providing a counterpoint to arguments made by the commander of U.S. forces in the country, U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, that up to 40,000 more troops may be needed to defeat Taliban insurgents, Jones told CNN's "State of the Union" show Sunday that current forces there are already numerous.

"As you know, we have been there a while, and our allies have been there with us," Jones said. "Forty-two countries, NATO, all of the major organizations of the world, from the U.N. to NATO, the EU, 68,000 U.S. troops, now closing 30,000 allied troops and close to 100,000 Afghan troops. So it's a -- it's a robust force."

Asked if he thought McChrystal's public lobbying for more troops was "unseemly," Jones responded, "Ideally, it's better for military advice to come up through the chain of command and I think that General McChrystal and the others in the chain of command will present the president with not just one option, which does, in fact, tend to have a forcing function, but a range of options that the president can consider."