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U.S. Now Favors Expanding Force in Afghanistan
Friday, August 30, 2002
By Michael R. Gordon
New York Times Service

The Bush administration itself has not offered to place American peacekeepers in Afghanistan. It has also had a difficult time finding another nation to lead the force once Turkey's command expires this year.

WASHINGTON -- NYT
Pentagon officials who long opposed expanding the international security force in Afghanistan now say that enlarging it and placing its troops outside Kabul may help secure the country and allow American troops to leave sooner, senior Bush administration officials said Thursday.

The shift, officials said, may be necessary because of the lingering difficulties in rebuilding the country and establishing law and order in a nation still wracked by banditry, warlords and renegade Taliban fighters.

One senior administration official described the shift at the Pentagon as a ``mid-course correction.''

The change in the Pentagon's thinking is an important precondition for other nations to contribute troops for a peacekeeping effort that would extend beyond the Afghan capital.
(More: The Miami Herald News Source)
2002 © The New York Times.

the “Coalition” bails on Afghanistan, so the U.S. takes up the slack -- again.

As a side-note, it’s good to show Hussein that the U.S. will be moving within strike range of his little sandbox.

Dan