Obama said "two". McCain upped the ante to "three". I don't think he is orchestrating it to any degree, but must be listening to the right military folks.
Three Combat Brigades to Afghanistan in the Spring
Spring makes perfect sense because the passes in the Hindu Kush often slow down terrorist immigration into Afghanistan and battle picks up in the spring. Though, last winter, IIRC, I believe the Taliban tried to keep up or ramp up some action, just to keep the pressure on.
As a quick note, what is it that they say about professionals and logistics?
Levin (D) complains about not having more forces there, Gates and the generals respond:
Three Combat Brigades to Afghanistan in the Spring
Spring makes perfect sense because the passes in the Hindu Kush often slow down terrorist immigration into Afghanistan and battle picks up in the spring. Though, last winter, IIRC, I believe the Taliban tried to keep up or ramp up some action, just to keep the pressure on.
As a quick note, what is it that they say about professionals and logistics?
Levin (D) complains about not having more forces there, Gates and the generals respond:
Both he and Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the panel that military commanders believe they need to move cautiously as they cut troop levels in Iraq.There is also a little something something for the Petraeus plans in Gates echoing the "don't make more enemies than necessary" approach.
"We do not want to jeopardize the gains that we made. We paid a high price for them," said Cartwright.
He added that support forces are needed in both Iraq and Afghanistan. And building up the U.S. force in Afghanistan depends to some degree on how quickly those support troops can be freed up.[snip]
He also noted that U.S. relations with Pakistan are critical since about 80 percent of the military's cargo supplies and 40 percent of the fuel are transported through Pakistan and across the border.
You've already touched on one difficulty: until the troops are freed up from Iraq, they won't be available to go to Afghanistan.
But there's another one, and it's huge: Logistics. Just getting the bare minimum of life support in place for 3/10 Mountain before they arrive in theater this winter is going to be tough work. Three more combat brigades, along with accompanying aviation, engineers, CSS, and other enablers, will almost double the number of US troops in Afghanistan.
Constructing bases for enough bases and life support for them to get them all in next spring and summer will be extremely difficult, if not impossible.
Mr Gates, logistics is about to make you its bitch.