Troop Surge for Afghanistan is Unrealistic
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on September 29th, 2008 4:29 am by HL
Troop Surge for Afghanistan is Unrealistic
WASHINGTON — If there was one foreign-policy issue on which Barack Obama and John McCain agreed during Friday night’s debate, it was that the United States should send more troops to Afghanistan. The bipartisan enthusiasm for this surge is so strong that there has been relatively little discussion of whether this strategy makes sense. So here’s a skeptical look at the issue, drawn from conversations during a visit to Afghanistan this month with Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Rather than more troops, the real game-changer in Afghanistan may be Gates’ plan to spend an extra $1.3 billion on surveillance technology to find and destroy the leadership of the insurgency.