'Let come what may' : Obama will send 34,000 troops

Obama's decision about whether to send more troops in Afghanistan is expected on December 1st, and he may well be going with an increase of around 30,000 towards a war we don't have a way to win.

We've reached a crucial juncture. More troops to Afghanistan would be a disaster, both over there and politically over here. Can you sign the petition urging Obama to rethink Afghanistan strategy and not send more troops? For every signature we get, CREDO Mobile will generously donate $1 to the blog fellowship that supports Derrick Crowe, a prominent anti-war voice who's been a leader on this issue. (For a bit more about Derrick's work, click here.)

Click here to sign the petition, add your voice, and support Derrick. 

So the President has apparently made his decision about Afghanistan: He’ll send another 34,000 troops there, according to multiple reports. The White House is preparing for Obama’s first-ever prime-time address to formally announce the move. But for the moment, it’s not at all clear what those troops will be doing.

When top commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal laid out his gloomy Afghan war report in August, he cautioned that “additional resources are required, but focusing on force or resource requirements misses the point entirely. The key take away from this assessment is the urgent need for a significant change to our strategy and the way that we think and operate.”

Right now, there’s no word of any big strategy shift — just news of an influx of more forces.

According to McClatchy, “the plan calls for the deployment over a nine-month period beginning in March of three Army brigades from the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Ky.; the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum, N.Y.; and a Marine brigade from Camp Lejeune, N.C., for as many as 23,000 additional combat and support troops.”

In addition, a 7,000-strong division headquarters would be sent to take command of U.S.-led NATO forces in southern Afghanistan - to which the U.S. has long been committed - and 4,000 U.S. military trainers would be dispatched to help accelerate an expansion of the Afghan army and police.

An increase of that size “would mean deploying practically every available U.S. Army brigade to war,” Spencer Ackerman recently noted. Yet paradoxically, it also repreents a relatively small number of extra trainers, given NATO’s stated goal of radically expanding Afghanistan’s armed forces, from under 100,000 today to 250,000 in the future. Will new NATO Training Mission – Afghanistan commander Lt. Gen. Bill Caldwell will have the forces he needs to accomplish this key job?