U.S. To Send 20,000 - 30,000 More Troops To Afghanistan

This is very good news. Most experts and military commanders have been calling for increased troops in Afghanistan for a long time - NATO countries have been asked to do that and of course, they have dragged their feet but as always seems to be the case, it's up to the United States to step up to the plate. This is a brief announcement via Reuters so I'll excerpt the entire article here below:

U.S. to send 20,000 more troops to Afghanistan

KABUL (Reuters) - The United States is looking to send 20,000 to 30,000 extra troops to Afghanistan by the beginning of next summer, the chairman of the U.S. joint chiefs of staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, told reporters on Saturday.
"We've agreed on the requirement and so it's really clear to me we're going to fill that requirement so it's not a matter of if, but when," Mullen said. "We're looking to get them here in the spring, but certainly by the beginning of summer at the latest."

With 20,000 to 30,000 more troops, U.S. and NATO forces are going to be able to not only hold more ground that they have captured from the Taliban but it's my guess that there will be more aggressive campaigns in southern Afghanistan and along the Pakistan border.

I'm not holding my breath for NATO countries to answer the call here but even a total of 5,000 more troops from all NATO countries combined would make a huge difference. We have seen several years of fizzled out "spring offensives" by the Taliban but I do think that will change next spring - it's my view that the Spring of '09 will see the largest offensive ever brought to Afghanistan by the Taliban and this troop "surge" is going to be needed....big time.