[maine-iac7]

The fight in Afghanistan is hard rock, and our guys up there definitely need some help. Bush and Gates's successors need to stop playing around and start recruiting for real, and bump up the Army and Marine Corps.

AMEN

Gates keeps saying he'll make NATO step up and send the troops, equipment they committed too but never sent. He uses this as his rationale for not 'bumping up' = and NATO keeps thumbing it's collective nose at him.

Well, GATES, in the meantime, while you're playing politics, how about sending some helP - not take take the case that isn't and looks like won't be - but the case that IS...

[lentulusgracchus]

Gates keeps saying he'll make NATO step up and send the troops.....

I think that was the real reason for the mumble about Petraeus getting rotated to NATO Europe..... not that I think it would necessarily be a good idea.

But you're right, that is still "playing politics" and we need to step up ourselves and not depend on NATO; if the Italian Alpini show up -- good troops, but I don't know if any European troops or even most of ours are equal to what we were reading about -- well, so much the better.

We need the Brits to send the Gurkhas. Those guys will sort out these jihadi tough guys p.d.q.