U.S. Marines with Headquarters and Service Company, 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment kneel at the firing line during live-fire training on the battle site zero range at Camp Bastion, Afghanistan, on Nov. 22, 2008. The Marines are required to complete the training as part of their reception, staging, onward movement and integration training. DoD photo by Cpl. Pete Thibodeau, U.S. Marine Corps. (Released)From Wall Street Journal:
Vice President-elect Joe Biden's visit to Afghanistan this month -- even before President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration -- will underscore the new administration's priority to ending the war there. But their planned "surge first, then negotiate" strategy isn't likely to work.
The Obama-Biden team wants to weaken the Taliban militarily then strike a political deal with the enemy from a position of strength. This echoes what the Bush administration did in Iraq, where it used a surge largely as a show of force to buy off Sunni tribal leaders and other local chieftains. Current Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Michael Mullen has already announced a near-doubling of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, to up to 63,000, by mid-2009.
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