More troops to Afghanistan?

7,000 more troops are promised to be sent to Afghanistan to fight the Taliban and al Qaeda extremists and train Afghan forces, according to Nato. "At least 25 countries will send more forces to the mission in 2010," Anders Fogh Rasmussen told reporters after holding talks with NATO foreign ministers. "They have offered around 7,000 forces with more to come."

 Despite President Obama’s priority plan to withdraw the troops from the Afghanistan war in his presidential campaign by July 2011, more troops are needed to defeat corruption in Afghanistan. "ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) will have at least 37,000 more soldiers in 2010 than it did this year," Rasmussen said. "That is solidarity in action." Currently, there are 68,000 U.S. troops operating under both NATO and U.S. commands, and around 42,000 non-U.S. forces under NATO.

The US has also reaffirmed ISAF to be an ally and a partner in defeating the Afghan war and coordinate civilian and development assistance in increasing the troops. "We have come together in NATO and in ISAF because we recognize that our security is shared -- that we have a collective responsibility." 

Even though more troops are deemed to be sent in Afghanistan, hopefully, Obama's plan of withdrawing troops by July 2011 will be attained by this upcoming input of troops.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/12/04/afghan.nato.troops/index.html?section=cnn_latest