AFGHANISTAN:News that the Iraq study group recommends a fresh injection of US combat troops for Afghanistan will come as sweet relief to embattled Nato commanders.
Once the White House's proudest foreign policy success, Afghanistan is slowly starting to resemble the sort of quagmire the US is struggling to escape in Iraq.
This year's dramatic Taliban resurgence has seen record numbers of suicide attacks and roadside bombs, a booming drugs trade and almost 4,000 deaths, including 190 foreign soldiers.
While the US provides about half of the 40,000 outside troops in Afghanistan, the Iraq study group highlights a glaring fact facing soldiers on the ground - it is not enough.
It says: "The huge focus of US political, military, and economic support has necessarily diverted attention from Afghanistan. We must not lose sight of the importance of the situation inside Afghanistan and the renewed threat posed by the Taliban. If the Taliban were to control more of Afghanistan, it could provide al-Qaeda the political space to conduct terrorist operations ... It is critical for the US to provide additional political, economic, and military support."
Analysts say US failure to send sufficient troops to Afghanistan in late 2001 was a blunder. "American policymakers ... misjudged their own capacity to carry out major strategic change on the cheap," said Barnett Rubin, an Afghanistan expert, in a recent report.
Instead the US military relied on alliances with friendly warlords to exert control and help in the hunt for al-Qaeda and Taliban fugitives. But as the US moved its military and intelligence assets out of Afghanistan in preparation for the invasion of Iraq, the same warlords were already undermining the democracy that George Bush wanted to nurture.
The warlords built drug empires, engaged in widespread corruption and undermined the president, Hamid Karzai. The Taliban skilfully exploited the situation this year through intimidation and propaganda aimed at largely illiterate southern Pashtuns.
US soldiers on the ground are reportedly angry that they botched an opportunity to destroy al-Qaeda and hunt for Osama bin Laden in favour of a doomed adventure in Iraq.
