President Barack Obama has made eloquent speeches about the need to fight in Afghanistan and made clear to the American people he was sending troops to that nation in order to wipe put the enemy and create conditions for peace. Republican congressmen are adamant in support of more troops and more troops and regard dispatching 30,000 as not sufficient. Senator John McCain wants General McChyrstal to have enough troops to do the job. Somehow, lost in these brave cries for more troops is exactly where are the troops going to come from that will comprise the “surge” in Afghanistan. In an interesting analysis in the Army Times, the publication reviews the story of the Stryker Brigade which arrived in Afghanistan several months ago and was shocked to learn how little they knew about the manner of fighting in Afghanistan.

A major problem which President Obama refuses to acknowledge is the need for extensive training of soldiers prior to being sent to fight in a strange land. Sgt. Jason Hughes of the Stryker Brigade notes: “we trained in urban fighting in Iraq and then they gave us Afghanistan. The principle are the same, but the details are day-and-night different, and we’ve learned the hard way.” The Army Times claims few of the Stryker Brigade had been trained in how to fight in Afghanistan and the IED menace was new to them. They also discovered intelligence from headquarters was inadequate and troops on the scene of action had to piece together new ways of fighting.

So, Mr. President, do we have 30,000 well trained troops ready to fight in Afghanistan?