U.S. Marines of Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment ride a CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter from Camp Bastion, Afghanistan, to Now Zad, Afghanistan, on Nov. 17, 2008. The Marines, based out of Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, N.C., are deployed to Afghanistan in support of the NATO mission. DoD photo by Cpl. Cory A. Tepfenhart, U.S. Marine Corps. (Released)From Reuters:
KABUL (Reuters) - British, Canadian and Dutch troops are doing their best to fight the Taliban in southern Afghanistan with limited resources, but with progress slow, the United States is considering a surge of its own firepower to tip the balance.
The decision whether to send more than 20,000 extra U.S. troops to Afghanistan to safeguard presidential polls next year is likely to be one of the first faced by President-elect Barack Obama when he becomes commander-in-chief in January.
"The main problem is that there aren't enough troops. It's just a big area and you need a boat-load more people," a U.S. defense official said.
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My Comment: Such a deployment will not be a surge to protect the election process ..... this surge is the first phase in initiating a counter insurgency campaign, a counter insurgency campaign that is long overdue.