Officials: Afghanistan set for civilian surge

[unhappycamper]

Officials: Afghanistan set for civilian surge
By Matthew Lee and Anne Gearan - The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Mar 18, 2009 21:45:24 EDT

WASHINGTON — Top aides to President Barack Obama are recommending that the United States combine a boost in military deployments with a steep increase in civilian experts to combat a growing insurgency in Afghanistan, senior U.S. officials said Wednesday.

Several hundred civilians from various U.S. government agencies — from agronomists to economists and legal experts — will be deployed to Afghanistan to reinforce the nonmilitary component in Kabul and the existing provincial reconstruction teams in the countryside, officials said.

A soon-to-be-concluded review of Afghanistan policy that Obama is expected to act on and announce next week builds on steps first endorsed by the Bush administration last year, the officials said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the review has not yet been completed.

Members of Obama’s Principals’ Committee, which is made up of the national security adviser, the secretaries of state and defense and the country’s intelligence chiefs, met at the White House on Tuesday to complete their recommendations.

Officials said counterinsurgency, reconstruction and development in Afghanistan would be top priorities.


Rest of article at: http://armytimes.com/news/2009/03/ap_afghainstan_civilian_surge_031809/%2e