No Surge From Europe

Britain's 500 extra troops for Afghanistan will do little to tip the balance of the war. President Obama will have to fight the Afghan war almost exclusively with American boys - and mostly American money.

In light of the fact that there will soon be some 68,000 American soldiers on the ground in Afghanistan and General Stanley McChrystal is asking the Administration for as many as 40,000 more, Gordon Brown’s announcement that Britain has “agreed” to send an extra 500 soldiers hardly seems like significant news.  While the 500 extra troops will do little to tip the balance of the war, the news is interesting and significant for the future of the Afghan war effort.

But the news is also significant for Gordon Brown's own political future. Brown, an already unpopular leader, will be punished in a meaningful way at the polls for his “support” of the war.  Great Britain is our closest military ally, yet their involvement in Afghanistan - even before Obama's surge - is highly unpopular.  The electoral costs of meaningfully expanding the British contribution to the NATO mission in Afghanistan make it incredibly unlikely that President Obama and the United States will receive the sort of even moderately proportional contribution to the war effort that the president and upper level military leaders have been demanding.

President Obama will have to fight the Afghan war almost exclusively with American boys - and mostly American money.