Mission creep in Afghanistan

BOSTON — Hate to say we told you so, but we did. 

GlobalPost predicted back in August in our special report "Life, Death and the Taliban" that there would be requests by the Pentagon for more troops in Afghanistan.

And Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen delivered the anticipated plea before Congress Tuesday, saying that success in Afghanistan would require more troops and that more time would be needed to "succeed" in Afghanistan.

I would hasten to add that most analysts — from the right and left — watching Afghanistan would be hard pressed to tell you what "success" means in Afghanistan.

There are no metrics, there is no clear mission and this is why so many feel the strategy of increasing troops is so perilous, as I pointed out in a column last week on the eight-year anniversary of 9/11. Leading Democrats, like Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, are going south on the military brass' strategy for a further build up beyond the additional 21,000 troops that President Barack Obama called for in March and which are now flowing into the war zone. The final stage of those deployments will occur in November. That will bring the total of U.S. forces in Afghanistan to 68,000. Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona predictably said more troops are "vitally needed."

The political battle is just being drawn over the war in Afghanistan. And if you thought the fight over health care was tough, brace yourself for a knock-down, drag-out fight over how to go forward in Afghanistan.  It remains the most perilous foreign policy issue for Obama.

http://www.globalpost.com/notebook/worldview/090915/mission-creep-afghanistan