Source:
GuardianUS to seek more British troops for Afghanistan
Patrick Wintour and Richard Norton Taylor
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 2 August 2009 21.30 BST
Britain will come under fresh pressure to send more troops to Afghanistan this month when General Stanley McChrystal, the Nato commander in the country, tells President Barack Obama that a further troop surge by the military alliance is necessary.
The review was ordered by Obama and British officials have been closely involved. It comes as the foreign affairs select committee criticised almost every aspect of the conduct of the war, and doubted whether the Taliban represented a threat to Western security.
A former Foreign Office minister, Kim Howells, meanwhile claimed there would not be public backing for a long war in Afghanistan.
The McChrystal review is expected to call for a doubling of the Afghan army from the current 150,000 troops to more than 300,000 and a concentration of Nato forces in the populous south, rather than in the mountainous east. The review is also likely to seek US agreement to funnel more aid through the Afghan government in an attempt to build its reputation among local people.
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/aug/02/afghanistan-troops-taliban-mcchrystal