DoD Buzz: Surge Hawks’ Frustration Mounts

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Surge Hawks’ Frustration Mounts
By Greg Grant Thursday, November 5th, 2009 4:39 pm
Posted in International, Land, Policy

It was a sullen and disgruntled panel that talked Afghanistan at the American Enterprise Institute last night. The conservative think tank has nowhere near the same influence with the Obama crowd as they did when Bush was in office and their calls for a massive Afghan “surge” have, so far, appeared to fall on deaf ears.

AEI’s Fred Kagan said emphatically that we are losing the war in Afghanistan. The Taliban are sweeping across the country. Any delay in a troop surge means we will lose much faster. Fellow hawk Tom Donnelly said an additional 40,000 troops, the figure that is routinely bandied about as the number of troops ISAF commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal wants, is no longer sufficient to stave off defeat. He called for a surge of eight to 10 brigades to Afghanistan, which gets close to 60,000 troops.

Providing a more measured analysis was Council on Foreign Relations’ fellow Stephen Biddle. He supports McChrystal’s “integrated-counterinsurgency” strategy as the best hope to prevent Afghanistan descending once again into a “grand mal” civil war. Biddle emphasized that McChrystal’s prescription is a “high-cost” way to go; problem is there aren’t many other options with much chance of success.

McChrystal’s report made clear that the situation in Afghanistan is “serious” and that “many indicators suggest the overall situation is deteriorating.” A couple of important points should be kept in mind. McChrystal’s review was conducted in the spring and early summer. At that time, there were 36,000 American troops in Afghanistan. By the end of the year the number will be 68,000.

In 2006, the year things truly began to go south in Afghanistan and the insurgency made substantial inroads, there were just 20,000 American and 12,000 foreign troops there. That number increased to just 30,000 during 2008. American troop numbers have doubled in just the past 8 months. Those additional troops, along with more helicopters and more reconnaissance assets, have barely had time to make their presence felt, but it will not be immediate.


Rest of article at: http://www.dodbuzz.com/2009/11/05/surge-hawks-frustration-mounts/?wh=wh