Summary
While President Obama signed orders to deploy 17,000 additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan, including 8,000 Marines, his thinking on the Afghan war has changed significantly. It's no longer the gung- ho view of a surge-type operation routing al Qaeda's terrorists.
The reinforcements also fall shy of the 30,000 troops requested by Gen. David McKiernan, the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, which would have doubled current U.S. force levels in a country of 35 million the size of France. Juggling troop requirements between two wars leaves one theater shortchanged. "Even with these additional forces," warned Gen. McKiernan, "I have to tell you that 2009 is going to be a tough year."See the full content of this document
Extract
A New, Uncertain Trumpet
Al Qaeda is in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), those seven tribal agencies under Pakistani sovereignty on the Afghan border, not in Afghanistan. But the more the United States keeps bombing al Qaeda's safe havens in ...
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