General Stanley McChrystal has been all over the media telling the world that he needs about 40,000 more troops in Afghanistan. This is a PR tactic that can be used as a CYA  exercise when things get worse in the graveyard of empires. Then General McChrystal can come back and say, well how could be win the war–we didn’t have enough troops. This has been the usual excuse for Generals who have lost battles. 

"Hel-mund" dust storm: Defeat in Afghanistan

An irritated CIA Director Robert Gates seems to have turned down the request of the new General in Afghanistan. A War-weary American public would not tolerate a request for another surge. Already the polls are headed in the Anti-War direction. Congress has given the Obama Administration another year to wrap up victory in Afghanistan with a ribbon tied on the package.

This means that General Stanley McChrystal and his boss Admiral Mullen have about 18 months to bring in some trophies and reduce the rising death toll.

Taliban attacks in Afghanistan 2009

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon presented a grim portrait of the Afghanistan war Thursday, offering no assurances about how long Americans will be fighting there or how many U.S. combat troops it will take to win.

Defeating the Taliban and al-Qaida will take “a few years,” Defense Secretary Robert Gates said, with success on a larger scale in the desperately poor country a much longer proposition. He acknowledged that the Taliban has a firm hold on parts of the country President Barack Obama has called vital to U.S. security.

Congress wants answers to what lawmakers described as basic questions to soothe a war-weary American public.

“In the intelligence business, we always used to categorize information in two ways, secrets and mysteries,” Gates, a former CIA director, told a Pentagon news conference.

He added: “Mysteries were those where there were too many variables to predict. And I think that how long U.S. forces will be in Afghanistan is in that area.”

With 62,000 U.S. troops already in the country, and another 6,000 headed there by the end of the year, Gates suggested there is little appetite in Washington to add many more.

He said his top commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, is free to ask for whatever he needs, but Gates said when the general submits a revised war plan in the coming weeks it will not contain a request to expand the U.S. fighting force.

McChrystal is expected to identify shortfalls that could be filled by U.S. forces, but a formal request would come only later. The White House has made no secret of its skepticism about further troop additions in Afghanistan, and Gates said Thursday he still was worried that too many American forces could turn Afghans against those trying to help them. No Troop Increase Recommendation In Afghan Report: Gates digg Huffpost – No Troop Increase Recommendation In Afghan Report: Gates

The Area under Taliban control in Afghanistan is growing

The Europeans know that there is no military solution to Afghanistan. Most countries have given notice for a pull-out. The UK has already left Iraq, and should be leaving Afghanistan in 2011. That leaves Mr. Obama to put the right spin on things so that he can execute the Exit Strategy that he has been working with Mr. Karzai and the Taliban. It is pedagogical to note that the Taliban have announced that they will not interfere in the Afghan elections so that Pakhtuns can be elected to parliament. Already the Hizb e Islami has 40 seats in the Afghan parliament. If the Taliban allow a violence free election that number could increase dramatically.