17,000 … and Counting. Why Obama is sending more troops to Afghanistan now, and a look at the possible end game."

"President Obama was initially wary of agreeing to this week's announced deployment of some 17,000 extra troops to Afghanistan, according to administration sources. He preferred to await the outcome of a full-blown review on U.S. strategy in the country which could land on his desk in six weeks or so. But with critical elections looming, even that delay wasn't acceptable.

"Already postponed from May because the Taliban insurgency has prevented voter-registration across most of the south and east of the country, Afghanistan's national elections have now been set for early August. This vote's success is critical to Washington's strategy in Afghanistan. And it won't be unless U.S. troops can bring security to the most threatened areas."

"It's equally the case, unhappily, that only the military can provide the security needed to put in place the other pillars of a counter-insurgency campaign: jobs, civic works and the spread of good government. Unless his strategic review comes up with some magical formula for success—which seems implausible—Obama will likely find that a commitment of far more than 17,000 troops is going to be needed by the end of the war."

A futile hope - that voting will create a political structure willing to take on the Taliban and narcotics trade. And I don't think anyone has posted a realistic view of what "win" looks like for Afghanistan, though the term "win" has been used.

Karzai's government has been corrupted by narcotics money and tribal loyalties, the Taliban is more popular than ever, 2/3rds of Afghanis don't like the US, Pakistan is about destabilized over the issues of the Taliban and US, and there's no way the US and/or NATO can keep the boots on the ground to eliminate resistance.

Obama is not dumb, and he's sure acting like a dumb President.

Arf