U.S. Asking Britain For Support In Afghanistan

Britain Faces US Pressure For A Troop Surge
In Afghanistan -- Times Online

Britain is coming under increasing pressure to send more troops to Afghanistan as part of an American-led “quiet surge” designed to counter the worsening insurgency.

Robert Gates, the US Secretary of Defence, said yesterday that Washington was planning to send two more brigades, or about 7,000 troops, to Afghanistan next year in addition to the brigade already diverted from Iraq, and a fourth brigade in 2010. But he added that he expected Britain to match Washington’s commitment by enlarging its troop presence in Afghanistan next year as both countries reduce their numbers in Iraq.

“My understanding is that the UK may increase the size of its force,” he told journalists before the Nato meeting of defence ministers in London yesterday. “Truthfully, I don’t know if a final decision has been made.”

The Ministry of Defence denied that a further troop commitment was being considered beyond the current changeover between departing and deploying troops that will take the British contingent from 7,800 to 8,030.

Read more ....

My Comment: The British are asking to do the impossible. 20,000 U.K. soldiers are about to quit .... I doubt that these soldiers will be easy to replace.

The Americans must be dreaming.