Jackson50 on 17 February 2009
| akuma587 said: Ummm, did you guys notice that there are currently 38,000 troops deployed in Afghanistan. 17,000 more is about a 45% increase. I doubt Obama just pulled this number out of thin air either. I imagine he consulted with a lot of people to see what they thought was the appropriate response. |
Yes, but a "surge" of 17,000 troops in Afghanistan is nothing. In Iraq, which is over 200,000 sq km smaller than Afghanistan and has a smaller population, the US added 20,000 troops to a force of over 100,000 troops. Not to mention Iraq did not suffer from the myriad problems facing Afghanistan-lack of wealth, lack of infrastructure which hampers logistics, and a porous border in which the enemy operates (WNFP, FATA, and the increasing Talibanisation of Balochistan). As I said earlier, this paltry surge coupled with other policies (cross-border attacks) is a recipe for disaster. If the surge was markedly larger and featured a change in policy in other areas, I would approve of it.
