Hidden among the hoopla surrounding President Obama's signing of the "Stimulus" bill yesterday was the announcement that the President is sending 12,000 soldiers and Marines to Afghanistan.
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates signed the orders today. The soldiers are part of the 2nd Infantry Division’s 5th Stryker Brigade Combat Team based at Fort Lewis, Wash., and the Marines serve with the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade from Camp Lejeune, N.C.
Of the 12,000, 4,000 are soldiers and the remaining 8,000 are Marines. Both units will deploy later this spring.
This
is the president’s first deployment decision. “There is no more solemn
duty as president than the decision to deploy our armed forces into
harm’s way,” Obama said in a written statement released by the White
House. “I do it today mindful that the situation in Afghanistan and
Pakistan demands urgent attention and swift action.”
As the President likes to say, this is just a "downpayment" on a larger, future deployment.
In addition, the 82nd Airborne Division’s Combat Aviation Brigade based at Fort Bragg, N.C., will deploy to Afghanistan later this spring. Aviation assets are needed in the rough terrain of Afghanistan.
McKiernan has asked for another brigade combat team, or its equivalent.
The President has long stated, both in the Whitehouse and on the campaign trail, that more needs to be done in Afghanistan.
“This reinforcement will contribute to the security of the Afghan people and to stability in Afghanistan,” Obama said.
Those who have criticized Bush on the war in Iraq often mention that Afghanistan has been neglected because Iraq has sucked up so many resources. And now that Iraq is all but won, the new President can focus on Afghanistan. Of course the reason why Afghanistan has become so dangerous is because al Qaida and their ilk were militarily defeated in Iraq and have retreated to the safe-havens of Pakistan's border regions.
But this war will be very different from Iraq. The terrain is much different, not lending itself to armored units. In fact, mechanized units will only have limited effectiveness. Light infantry and Special Operations units (and of course, Marines) will be the front line troops.
And it will be different because the enemy's staging and training areas remain in Pakistan requireing strikes inside a different soverign nation.
It will also be different because Russia is actively attempting to inderdict our supply lines. And they want to be a part of things....
But it will be the same in that if executed properly, it will become unpopular.
Because if we get aggressive enough to win, our casualty rate will go up until we have broken the back of the enemy. And if not handled carefully, Pakistan will become an enemy which will further complicate our logistics situation.
But it is no longer a Republican War. With Democrats in control of Congress and the White House, it will be the Democrats War. And the outcome will be compared to Iraq.
So the question will be, do they have the resolve to win this thing? And now that there is a war on their watch, will they decide to cut and run as they attempted to do so many times in Iraq?
The critics of Bush have always claimed that Afghanistan was the Good War that we should have been paying attention to all along.
So will they?
I find it interesting, and disturbing, that there were so few funds for the military in the "Stimulus" bill. And nothing yet has come up about increasing the size of the military that for so long they criticized as being "stretched thin". Both military spending and an increase in the force size would have been stimulative (as Reagan found out) but so far, nothing.
So what will they do?
