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We sent troops into Pakistan this past week. The Paks said very little about it. Apparently Bush has decided that one way or the other he's going to take out OBL before he leaves office.
The idea of sending more troops into Afghanistan is not a good one, in my view. Historically it's been proven to be a mistake. We succeeded in taking down the Taliban at the end of '01 because the fighting was done by Afghans, with Special Ops and air support from the US. But we can't do well in a long-term large-scale fight there because we don't know the culture and haven't embedded with it - but the Taliban and AQ have. That doesn't mean there is no military solution - to the contrary, the use of force has to be part of the solution, simply because of the nature of the foe, but it has to be part of an integrated approach that uses a lot more tools. Classic counterinsurgency as developed by Gallula and perfected by Petraeus counsels that dispersed small forces in support of local groups is the most effective way to suppress an insurgency. Fact is, we can never be as bloodthirsty and ruthless as the AQ/Taliban, but we can try to be smarter.
Another part of the problem is that this is a NATO operation, which means everyone and no one is in charge, and different countries' politics will govern which forces are available when for what purpose. Too many cooks and all that. I believe the technical term is "clusterfuck."
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