...and On National Security

What to you think "dear" leader will do? Stand up to the fringe left and send troops or give in and allow it to be "all for not"?

AFP: General backs request for more troops in Afghanistan

LONDON — Britain's top general in Afghanistan has backed his US commander's call for more foreign troops to fight an increasingly bloody Taliban insurgency, a newspaper said Monday.

Lieutenant-General Jim Dutton, the deputy commander of NATO?s International Security Assistance Force, told The Times newspaper that victory was a matter of "straightforward force ratios".

"If you want to achieve long-term stability, and therefore a lack of terrorism potential in an area, you need to be doing more than simply patrolling the skies," Dutton said.

He said he supported US General Stanley McChrystal's request for a troop buildup in the country to counter the Taliban insurgency -- as competing advice over the future war strategy and waning Western public support grows.