Surging To Haiti Instead Of Afghanistan

By Steve Hynd

Lat Thursday, in the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake, I wondered aloud how U.S. military deployments there would affect Obama and McChrystal's surge in Afghanistan. The initial units tasked for deployment to Haiti had been pulled off "dwell time" - the period they're meant to get for rest and retraining after active duty - with the 22nd MEU just returning from deployment to the Gulf on December 5th. Why would you send a just-returned unit? "It probably means you don't have anything else in reserve," one veteran officer told me.

That dearth of reserve became clearer today when the 24th MEU was tasked for Haiti. It had just completed COIN training, including cultural and language training specific to Moslem countries, and was probably going back to troubled Garmsir in Afghanistan where it had been deployed 12 months before.

Today the U.S. military admitted that the mobilization for Haiti "puts a strain" on Afghanistan deployemnts although it denied (obviously wrongly given the 24th MEU's apparent re-tasking) that there was any adverse affect on the speed of the surge so far. Mind you, General McChrystal seems recently to be admitting that his surge demand was all about power-politics in the corridors of D.C. anyways, since he's saying that "the tide is turning" in Afghanistan even without those extra troops. As Bernard Finel notes:

A couple of months ago, we needed an extra 30,000 men urgently.  Now, before those forces have even arrived, we�ve turned the tide.  How does that make sense?

It's possible McChrystal was simply taking advantage of Dianne Sawyer's captive presence to blow some smoke up America's ass - or it might just be that the surge was always more about "generals always ask for more troops" than about actually needing them.

Either way, two dumb invasions and occupations at an ever-increasing cost, have sucked up all the US military's ground reserves and treasure leaving the cupboard bare when Hell comes visiting closer to home.