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Sunday, March 21, 2010

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U.K. to Add Troops in Afghanistan

Wall Street Journal

2009-10-14

Britain is preparing to deploy hundreds of additional troops to Afghanistan, deepening the U.K.'s commitment to the unpopular war even as the Obama administration re-evaluates its entire approach to the conflict.

The planned deployment of about 500 British reinforcements is a rare bit of good news for the White House, which has struggled to persuade European countries to send more troops to Afghanistan. Prime Minister Gordon Brown is expected to announce the move Wednesday, according to a person familiar with the matter.

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European Pressphoto Agency

British military instructors and Afghan National Army officers supervise the training of Afghan troops Tuesday in the country's Herat province.
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Mr. Brown will say the extra troops depend on a number of conditions, including a North Atlantic Treaty Organization strategy for the training of Afghan civil and military personnel, proper equipment, and a new Afghan government being in place.

The British troop increase comes as the Obama administration weighs an urgent request from the top American commander in Kabul, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, for tens of thousands of new U.S. soldiers and Marines.

Mr. Obama is to gather his war council Wednesday for a session devoted to a continuing dissection of the pessimistic assessment of the war that Gen. McChrystal sent to Washington in August in advance of his recent troop request.

White House officials said the review will last at least into next week, which means final decisions on what strategy to employ in Afghanistan may not come before next month.

Britain has the second-biggest NATO contingent in Afghanistan after the U.S., and Mr. Brown will use a statement to Parliament to unveil the decision "in principle" to increase the U.K.'s troop commitment by about 500, according to a person familiar with his plans. All told, the U.K. troop presence in Afghanistan will rise to about 9,500, its highest level since the 2001 start of the conflict.

Georgia is planning to send a battalion of 1,000 troops to volatile Helmand province in southern Afghanistan in the spring, while smaller nations like Macedonia plan to send a few dozen soldiers each. Still, the Afghan war is increasingly the province of the U.S. and a core group of allies, including England and Canada.

Separately, Japan said it will end its naval refueling mission in support of U.S.-led operations in Afghanistan in January.

Mr. Brown's decision carries clear political risks. The war is increasingly unpopular within the U.K., and Mr. Brown has been accused of failing to properly equip British troops before they were sent to the country. He has consistently rejected the criticism, which comes from opposition politicians and some in the military.

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