From a previous post: http://sfcmac.wordpress.com/2009/01/02/the-surge-starts-in-afghanistan/
LOGAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan – Close to 3,000 American Soldiers who recently arrived in Afghanistan to secure two violent provinces near Kabul have begun operations in the field and already are seeing combat, the unit’s spokesman said Monday.
……U.S. commanders have been contemplating sending up to 30,000 more soldiers to bolster the 33,000 already here, but the new administration is expected to initially approve only a portion of that amount. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Monday the president would decide soon.
The new unit — the 3rd Brigade Combat Team of the 10th Mountain Division — moved into Logar and Wardak provinces last month, and the Soldiers from Fort Drum, N.Y., are now stationed in combat outposts throughout the provinces.
Militants have attacked several patrols with rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, including one ambush by 30 insurgents, Lt. Col. Steve Osterhozer, the brigade spokesman, said.
Several roadside bombs also have exploded next to the unit’s MRAPs — mine-resistance patrol vehicles — but caused no casualties, he said.
“In every case our vehicles returned with overwhelming fire,” Ostehozer said. “We have not suffered anything more than a few bruises, while several insurgents have been killed.”
Commanders are in the planning stages of larger scale operations expected to be launched in the coming weeks.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090216/ap_on_re_as/as_afghan_surge_begins
There hasn’t been much in the leftwing MSM over this. The success in Iraq took the hot air out of their anti-war sails. As long as Afghanistan goes the same way, you won’t see daily rants from the hacks in the New York Times, or out of the mouth of MSNBC’s resident blowhard, Keith Olbermann. Barring any re-newed attacks on American soil, they’ll be too busy providing cover for Obama’s corruption, Marxist ideology, and socialist economic fuckups.
The best thing for THE ONE to do is to leave the war to the military and keep his foreign policy ideas to himself. We’ll be much safer that way.
Prepare for continuing counter-terrorist operations even after the job in Afghanistan is finished. Terrorists cross borders, and as long as the Islamic nation-states in the Middle East breed and harbor them, they will keep coming.
The rugged mountain terrain and proximity of the Pakistan border will demand a different strategy, and increased use of Predator missions. Don’t be surprised if Pakistan is next on the agenda.
The war that Islam declared on the West will not end until all of them are dead or decide to worship their allah peacefully. But, since the Koran’s belligerent doctrine for a world Caliphate is followed to the letter, it will certainly not be the latter.
If Americans don’t want another 9/11 they had damned well better be prepared for the long haul. The only viable ‘exit strategy’ is to ensure that Islamic extremists and the rest of the world’s malefactors, will think twice about attacking the United States. To accomplish that will take more than just a piecemeal war in Iraq and Afghanistan. It will take making William Tecumseh Sherman look like a Boy Scout. If you get my drift.