Afghanistan situation worsening, Blair says

[unhappycamper]

Afghanistan situation worsening, Blair says
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Mar 10, 2009 21:10:35 EDT

With the security situation continuing to deteriorate in Afghanistan, members of the Senate Armed Services Committee were anxious Tuesday to learn when President Barack Obama will unveil a new strategic plan to reverse an increase in violence and try to provide some stability so the Afghan government can deliver basic services.

Exactly when the review will be complete is unclear. When Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a man known for his short temper, pressed witnesses to learn when a new strategy would be announced, National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair said he wasn’t sure. “I can only say the president is more impatient than you are,” Blair said.

McCain, who lost to Obama in the 2008 presidential election, said he hoped the final plan was something more than a “minimalist” approach, suggesting it should be modeled after the so-called surge strategy of deploying additional U.S. troops to Iraq that appears to have made a difference in the security situation there.

McCain pressed Blair about whether U.S. is losing the war in Afghanistan. Blair would not answer directly, but said that the Afghan government’s control “is decreasing, and that is a bad trend.”

Under Obama’s orders, the Defense Department is preparing to send about 17,000 additional troops to Afghanistan this year, while pulling about 12,000 combat troops out of Iraq. Simple math shows that stress on ground forces from extended and repeated combat deployments is not going to end soon.


Rest of article at: http://armytimes.com/news/2009/03/military_afghanistan_blair_031009w/%2e