Afstan: US forces increase under Obama quite a bit more that 17,000

And even more when increases ordered under President Bush are included. The headline of a Canwest News story in an earlier post read:

Additional 17,000 troops good news for Canadian soldiers
Members of the 82nd combat aviation Brigade arrive at Kandahar airfield on Friday. their presence quadruples the coalition forces' helicopter capacity in southern afghanistan [sic].

Contrary to what the headline above implies, the combat aviation brigade is not part of the 17,000 US troop increase that President Obama announced in February. The 82nd CAB was ordered to Afstan under President Bush--more details on US troop increases this year from an April 2 post, note the two additional training brigades:

...
The U.S. military has 38,000 troops in Afghanistan, and the number is projected to rise to 68,000 with deployments scheduled for this year. Those deployments include a 4,000-strong contingent of trainers from the 4th brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division [see middle of this post (Update: some "will operate in NATO’s Regional Command West, based in Herat, and Regional Command South, based in Kandahar, emphasis added)], 17,000 other combat troops, a 2,800-strong combat aviation brigade [ordered deployed under President Bush] and thousands of support forces whose placement was not publicly announced, the Pentagon said.

[US Army 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, also ordered deployed under President Bush, arrived earlier this year--more here.]..

In addition, there are these soldiers, with a training mission, also ordered to Afstan under President Obama (and generally ignored in media reporting on the US buildup)--from the Update at this Feb. 24 post:

...about 2,400 of the Georgia National Guard's 48th Infantry Brigade will be heading for a one-year deployment to Afghanistan in the coming months...