Doubling down on Afghanistan

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The outgoing Bush administration and the incoming new president are being asked to make a major new military commitment to Afghanistan.U.S. commanders are asking for at least 20,000 troops -- double the original estimate of the force necessary -- to battle the resurgent Taliban who have been reforming and training in the relative safety of the tribal areas of Pakistan.The request appears to come with some urgency and should be treated that way in Washington with input after next Tuesday from the president-elect. A Marine battalion and an Army brigade, about 4,000 troops altogether, are scheduled to go to Afghanistan in January in an already-approved deployment. But even with a decision made now it's unlikely the additional reinforcements could arrive before late spring or early summer.That decision should be politically uncontroversial since both Barack Obama and John McCain support the idea of more troops in Afghanistan. Additionally, Obama, who favors a phased withdrawal from Iraq, says he would make Afghanistan a military priority.It's not clear, with 130,000 troops still in Iraq, where the additional troops would come from or where, given Afghanistan's lack of infrastructure, where we would put them once they got there. That suggests the need to start building more bases if we're going to stay -- and we've been there for seven years now --in any numbers, a delicate task given Afghanistan's tradition of xenophobia.The 31,000 troops we have there now are under considerable strain, not only from fighting the Taliban but because they must provide logistical support to the NATO troops and the Afghan army. And indeed the commanders' request includes strong aviation, engineer, military police and intelligence components.More troops should not be our only strategy. It was once heresy to say so in the Bush administration but the White House has come around to the idea of talking to the more moderate elements of the Taliban. Apparently there actually are some. It seemed to get lost in the campaign clamor but Gen. David Petraeus, who had considerable success negotiating with the Sunni tribes in Iraq, has proposed doing so.He takes over Friday as head of the U.S. Central Command with responsibility for the Middle East and central Asia. He will be in a position to make it happen and the president-elect should back him if he does.(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com)