Andrea Mitchell  McChrystal's "Ground Truth": Need Half a
Million Boots on the Ground  Journalist Andrea Mitchell has
noted that General McChrystal's report to President Obama calls
for 500,000 troops in Afghanistan. [That's not 500,000 U.S.
troops, but 500,000 troops overall.] Mitchell correctly notes
that if you don't believe that the goals in McChrystal's report
for increasing the size of the Afghan army are realistic, that
should lead you to question agreeing to send more U.S. troops,
because the premise of the request for more troops is that if
you add more U.S. troops there's going to be "success," and that
success, apparently, requires 500,000 boots on the ground. If
you don't believe there's going to be success even if you add
more U.S. troops, then you shouldn't add more U.S. troops - you
should do something else.  McChrystal has suggested that without
more U.S. troops we will "fail" - but the same logic says that
without more Afghan troops we will also "fail." If adding the
additional U.S. troops wi