why are we adding troops there? Seriously are we trying to have another craphole with thousands more troops? Afghanistan is a Spec Ops war, numbers are not needed. Smart people doing the right things behind the scenes is what we need. I think this is politcal and just trying to be like "Hey NOW we are fighting the REAL war on terror" WTF!
From what I know (and I've kept a pretty keen eye out for news on Afghanistan), the Taliban are starting to assert themselves again. They're causing major problems in the South and Canada, which has had the bulk of responsibility in Kandahar and the southern regions is slated to withdraw all forces in 2010. Without additional troops there is a high probability for instability in the region.
Trying to outsource the war to Afghan warlords is what got things messed up in the first place. I think everyone is pretty much in agreement that there needs to be an aggressive NATO offensive there at this point.
Don't buy into Hollywood exxagerations, special forces are not that godly, nor can they pacify territory by themselves. That kind of thinking was what caused the mess in Iraq in the first place; the Bush administration thought they could "shock and awe" all opposition into surrendur, relying on special forces without the necessary amount of conventional troops. Special forces are just a military's troops that are trained to operate like they're guerillas. They operate in small units, and are often used to support the conventional troops that make up the bulk of the military and have most of its firepower. They provide aid to local allied militias, perform reconaissance, sabotage, and direct air strikes. They can't take control of territory by themselves.
Counter insurgency warfare requires a lot of manpower to conduct successfully. Take Iraq for example, it required the surge of 30,000+ soldiers in addition to 100,000+ already there, no to mention the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi Security forces. Military Commanders in Afghanistan have been calling for reinforcements for a while now. NATO either doesn't have the manpower or political will to send in the reinforcements that are desperately needed, especially in the South where the British, Canadian, Dutch and Danish forces are stretched very thin. Those nations have been taking a lot of casualties lately and if they don't receive any help soon there is the real possibility of them pulling out their soldiers. I just read an article where an ex Australian General said Afghanistan was on its way to being a lost cause and recommended Australia reinforce its contingent of about a 1000 soldiers to around 6000.
Afghanistan may be Obama's downfall sort of like Vietnam was LBJ's downfall. You can't have guns and butter unless you are subsidized by China or other countries. China and others may be balking at continuing to do so.
