Tuesday, December 23, 2008

A Surge Of Special Forces For Afghanistan Likely

SANGIN, Afghanistan - COL Abudul Majeed, 1st Kandak, 209th Afghan National Army Corps commander, (left) combat advised by a US Army Special Forces company commander, assigned to the Combined Joint Special Forces Task Force- Afghanistan, assesses a location for a new governors headquarters in Sangin District, Helmand Province, Afghanistan on 9 April 2007. Coalition and ANA forces have killed over 60 Taliban fighters while reclaiming the Sangin District area over the past several days in southern Afghanistan. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Keith Henning)

From Christian Science Monitor:

Defense officials say it will fill urgent gaps but Special Forces officers are skeptical.

Washington - The Pentagon is likely to send up to 20 Special Forces teams to Afghanistan this spring, part of a new long-term strategy to boost the Afghan security forces' ability to counter the insurgency there themselves.

The "surge" of elite Special Forces units would represent a multiyear effort aimed at strengthening the Afghan National Army and police units that the US sees as key to building up Afghanistan's security independence, say defense officials who asked to remain anonymous because the controversial decision has not yet been announced. The US already plans to send thousands of additional conventional forces to Afghanistan sometime next year. But it is hamstrung by limited availability since so many of those forces are still in Iraq.

Read more ....

My Comment: Afghanistan is a very big country .... 20 teams is just a drop in the bucket.

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