Quagmire Take Three

Ahead of Obama's December 1st roll out of a new Afghanistan plan, McClatchy is reporting that he intends to surge another 34,000 troops into the region.

Man, this does not feel good.

The right will undoubtedly praise the number and some will cry that he is not providing enough troops. The neocons will drink champaign.

I will be wondering, how they arrived at the number. After all doesn't it have to do with how to secure pipelines and access into Central Asia? Am I wrong?

Afghanistan has the face of the Taliban and al Qaeda, but its main body is all about natural resources, energy and such and how to cultivate the resource rich Central Asian territories. Afghanistan is an excellent access point.

McClatchy: Obama plans to send 34,000 more troops to Afghanistan

As it now stands, the plan calls for the deployment over a nine-month period beginning in March of three Army brigades from the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Ky., and the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum, N.Y., and a Marine brigade from Camp Lejeune, N.C., for as many as 23,000 additional combat and support troops.

In addition, a 7,000-strong division headquarters would be sent to take command of U.S.-led NATO forces in southern Afghanistan — to which the U.S. has long been committed — and 4,000 U.S. military trainers would be dispatched to help accelerate an expansion of the Afghan army and police.