The Big Announcement

Most of the world, and certainly everyone here in Afghanistan waited with some anticipation for the US President's announcement on what if any additional troops he would deploy here to continue to fight the Taliban Insurgency. For those of us on this program, we recognized that an increase in troops is going to mean alot more work for us in one way or another.

As it is, the announcement came - 30,000 additional troops - and where are they going? The following is an excerpt from the New York Times...

"An American military official said Wednesday that the bulk of new combat forces approved by President Obama would be sent to southern Afghanistan, an area including Helmand and Kandahar Provinces that is the financial and spiritual base of the Taliban as well as the deadliest part of the country for American troops."

Yep - that's home for yours truly - and the Taliban, as well as the lions share of 30,000 more American Troops. Now from my experience in Baghdad during the US Military Surge in 2007, that mean that insurgent attacks on US military installations increased during that period. Afghanistan is not a metropolitan area like Baghdad, and its not easy to run and hide here, so I don't know that the same will be the case.

Neverthless - If by comparison I hadn't been busy up until now (which I have), it's going to get down right sporting here soon. There are 2 main runways these new troops can land on going to these main areas - Kandahar and Bastion (Leatherneck). It's only about an hours helicopter flight to Leatherneck from here - and with the majority of those troops parked in between these two locale's - its gonna get crowded quick.

Last night I was startled awake, when what I believe was an A-10 Warthog cut loose with several bursts of fire from its cannon right outside the base. It had to be very close - because it woke me out of a dead sleep.

God bless our troops, and I'm glad to see 'em come - I hope with every fiber of my being we can break the back of this evil movement, and have peace for this country as well as our own.