In Afghanistan, there are three key provinces (from west to east; Nimroz, Helmand, Kandahar) where the Taliban have to maintain control, or lose their base of support and key recruiting area.
Regional Command South has been narrowed to just Kandahar, Zabul, Uruzgan, and Daykundi. We've also added a new Regionial Command Southwest.
Coalition troop strength in those regions is as follows:
There are now six NATO commands; Regional Command Capital (Kabul, with 8,000 troops), Regional Command North (9,000), Regional Command West (7,000), Regional Command South (30,000), Regional Command East (33,000) and the new Regional Command Southwest (27,000).
The total troop strength will be 150,000 foreign troops (over 100,000 Americans) and over 150,000 Afghan police and army. Add in a good number of contract security, too, I've read.
Add in the tribal areas of Pakistan as another region of the war, but one where our presence is just special forces, CIA, and armed drones to bolster what the Pakistanis are doing.
It will be this organization and troops that we will win or lose the war.
With Congressional support likely to get as shaky as it was in Iraq during 2007, we need to start showing progress so obvious that not even our media can mistake it for a Taliban resurgence.
