The Other Surge

We are asking our NATO allies for more troops for Afghanistan and we have significantly increased our troops strength in Afghanistan.

We've announced that we want to be ready for a Taliban spring offensive. Which makes sense since the spring is when the enemy comes out of their shelters to strike. Many were recruited last year in Pakistan and came across the border to die in large numbers. But they did some damage while they were out.

Yet consider that we did slaughter large numbers of them, which hasn't helped recruiting for this year.

And we went on a winter campaign to pursue the enemy rather than just wait for them to get ready in the spring. So we've not let them rest as much as they'd like.

And we've strengthened our operations on the border to catch the enemy coming across.

And the Pakistanis are committed to striking in the tribal areas where the Taliban are preparing. This should cut down on the number even trying to enter Afghanistan.

So with all these preparations that seem to indicate the Taliban will have trouble rivaling last spring's offensive, why would we need even more troops this spring?

Are we being cautious?

Or are we trying to get extra troops in Afghanistan so we'll have some forces to strike west into Iran while retaining enough troops to handle the Taliban? And this could be true whether we plan to hit Iran or whether we think Iran may strike and we want the ability to counter-attack.

Suspicious minds want to know.