More on US plans for Afstan

A bit of housekeeping after a blogging break:

...
The Army Corps of Engineers will spend up to $1.3 billion in new construction for troop placements in southern Afghanistan, said the corps commander in Afghanistan, Col. Thomas O'Donovan [more here].

Violence in Afghanistan has spiked in the last two years, and Taliban militants now control wide swaths of countryside. Military officials say they have enough troops to win battles but not to hold territory, and they hope the influx of troops, plus the continued growth of the Afghan army, will change that.

U.S. officials hope to add at least three new brigades of ground forces in the southern region, along with assets from an aviation brigade, surveillance and intelligence forces, engineers, military police and Special Forces. In addition, a separate brigade of new troops is deploying to two provinces surrounding Kabul [Update: They've arrived].

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said last month that Afghanistan could get up to 30,000 new U.S. troops in 2009, depending on the security situation in Iraq. Col. Greg Julian, a U.S. military spokesman, said Monday that one ground brigade should arrive by spring, a second by summer and a third by fall.

[US Brig. Gen. John] Nicholson [ISAF Regional Command-South's deputy commander for stabilization] said he expects the U.S. forces to be deployed in Kandahar city and along vital Highway 1, which links Kandahar to Kabul [emphasis added], and in neighboring Helmand province, the world's largest producer of opium poppies for heroin...

Since 2006, the U.S. has concentrated its forces in eastern Afghanistan, along the border with Pakistan, while the south is policed by 8,500 British troops, 2,500 Canadians and 2,500 Dutch.

Their overall commander is Dutch Maj. Gen. Mart de Kruif — who would also have command of any incoming U.S. forces in the south [but how real will that command be?] next year [actually a British general will take command in November 2009]. By the fall of 2010 the top officer in the south will be American [more here].

The infusion of U.S. power risks Americanizing a war that until now has been a shared mission of 41 coalition countries. But [Lt. Gen. J.B.] Dutton, the British general [ISAF deputy commander] , suggested there was no choice. "It has to do with national capacity and a number of political considerations in those countries," he said.

In Canada and many European countries, governments face low public support for keeping troops in Afghanistan combat zones.

Dutton said the British contribution is "significant," as well as that of Canada, which he noted has lost more troops per capita in Afghanistan than any other nation [except the Danes--on a per capita basis compared to Canada they've suffered 126 dead].

Nicholson, the U.S. general, said the Canadians have fought "heroically" but simply don't have enough forces to secure all of Kandahar. The Canadian Embassy declined to comment [emphasis added]...