More boots on Afghan ground

This was of course inevitable: American commanders (though not overtly Stanley McChrystal himself, the sly boots) want more troops in Afghanistan. Of course they do! As the much-maligned Curtis LeMay once pointed out, you could send a unit to Bermuda with no mission and no duties whatever, and within two months they'll be asking for reinforcements.

More seriously, Afghanistan has 40,000 villages. To put just one squad in each village, like the US Marines' Combined Action Platoons of the Vietnam War, would require 480,000 enlisted warfighters, which I suspect is more than we have in our army and marines combined. Somehow I don't see Sweden and Belgium making up the difference. Blue skies! -- Dan Ford