Greetings from Afghanistan! We just wanted to wish all of you dear readers a Happy New Year! The past 12 months have been fascinating for us at N&S – most notably because we began covering a new administration as it tackled the ever-evolving national security issues of our time. In addition, Jonathan, Warren and I all traveled to the war fronts this year (Jonathan and I to Afghanistan; Warren to Iraq).  We have seen these conflicts in the most intimate way, in the faces of the troops and in the Afghans and Iraqis who find themselves living alongside them.  Throughout the year, wherever we were, we felt your support, and for that we thank you.

In the next year, we will likely focus on the U.S. shift from Iraq to Afghanistan. By this summer, there will be more troops in Afghanistan than Iraq for the first time since 9/11. On the ground we are already seeing the shift, both by the U.S. military and the forces they face. December was the first month in Iraq when there were no hostile U.S. troop deaths since the war began.  Conversely, the U.S. lost 319 troops in Afghanistan in 2009, making it the deadliest year of the war for forces here.

We also will likely find ourselves talking more about countries like Yemen and Somalia, where the war against extremism appears to be spreading; Iran and North Korea, which are contemplating nuclear warfare; and China, which is expanding its military apparatus. Simply put, national security matters will become more complex and nuanced in the next year. I think one of the most important questions we here at N&S must ask as we cover all this is: Is the United States properly focusing its resources on the threats it faces? That is, is the United States fighting the next war or the last one?

Sadly, we will also cover the death of fellow Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan, both uniformed and civilian in the year ahead. We will see new tactics and a new kind of warfare in Afghanistan as groups like the Taliban respond to the U.S. surge plan. And we will also see heroism on the battlefront, likely by people who didn’t even know they had it in them.

My own personal prediction is that we will see many new faces in the Obama administration’s national security team. And with that, I expect changes to how the United States approaches national security. 

I hope you will join us again in 2010 as we cover these issues. Please know we welcome the ongoing dialogue that happens through this blog. We love hearing back from you, and we hope you will continue to leave your thoughtful comments to our postings. They encourage us to think about these issues in a new way, and as such, make us better journalists.

Greetings from Afghanistan, where I will be spending the next few weeks studying the air war and the run up to the troop surge. So far, I spent time on the two largest installations, Kandahar and Bagram, and at both places, officials are scurrying to prepare for additional 30,000-35,000 surge forces. Just before I left, I wrote about the logistical challenge of getting those troops in remote parts of Afghanistan in just six months as the president’s surge here calls for. But to see it on the ground is something else. I am seeing firsthand the additional complexities that I couldn’t properly understand in Washington.

The facilities here are already maxed out. Afghanistan has always been treated as the ugly stepsister to Iraq in terms of support, facilities and equipment. And as such, both installations have always adjusted to making the most with the little they have. Bagram, where I am writing this, already has the busiest airport within the DoD, in terms of cargo and passengers. It was designed to handle 250 passengers a day; it now takes in as many as 1,300. In November, airport workers handled nearly 20,000 tons of cargo, a record and far more than this airport was designed to handle. And with both the Christmas and surge rush of cargo, those numbers are only growing. As Lt. Col. Dan Krall, of the 455th Expeditionary Aerial Port Squadron, explained to me, it is a war of its own: “It’s constant battle to keep stuff moving.” Now, officials here are quickly trying to expand the airport and base to serve far more than Bagram was ever designed for. Even basic logistics need to be updated; Bagram is getting its first sewage system, for example. And both bases are constant construction projects. Simply put, Bagram and Kandahar, which will be needed to get the surge troops to their outposts, are already overcrowded, and the surge troops are not even here yet.

There is also the lingering July 2011 deadline. Where Iraq’s bases were expanded with no one knowing how long troops would stay, here everyone is building for facilities that will become too big by the deadline, when the president said the troops will start to withdraw. So all the construction around here is with that date in mind. How much do you then construct?

So often, we talk about the war out on the battlefield. But in Afghanistan, just as important is the logistics war. If it fails, the troops won’t get there, eat, and live securely to execute the new strategy. On the ground, it is an undeniably daunting task.

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Today, the Pentagon announced the first of the 30,000-35,000 surge troops headed to Afghanistan. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates began working on the orders last week, he told PBS’ Jim Lehrer News Hour, on the flight back from the president’s speech at the United States Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. Dec. 1 where he announced the strategy. In all, the Pentagon announced 16,000 troops.

From the Marines, the three deployment groups:
 
Task Force 1st Battalion, 6th Marines, based out of Camp Lejeune,
N.C., with approximately 1,500 Marines, deploying before the end of December
2009
 
Regimental Combat Team-2, headquartered at Camp Lejeune, N.C.,
with approximately 6,200 Marines, deploying early spring 2010.
 
I Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward) headquarters from Camp
Pendleton, Calif., with approximately 800 Marines, deploying spring 2010.
 
These units will bring the total number of Marines deployed to Afghanistan
to approximately 19,500.

And for the Army:
lst Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, Fort Drum, N.Y., with approximately 3,400 soldiers, deploying spring 2010. They are tasked with training Afghan security forces

In addition, another 4,100 combat support troops from several services, including military police will be deploying spring 2010.

UPDATE: Dear readers. A couple of my numbers were off by 200. I have corrected them. My apologies.

Perhaps former Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld might want to do some more research as he writes his memoirs about his service in the Bush administration.

Rumsfeld on Wednesday issued a rare statement disputing President Barack Obama's assertion in his West Point speech on Tuesday evening that the Bush administration rejected commanders' requests for additional troops for Afghanistan.

Calling Obama's claim a "bald misstatement," Rumsfeld indignantly declared: "I am not aware of a single request of that nature between 2001 and 2006."

Actually, U.S. commanders asked for an additional 2,000 Marines to help protect voters in Afghanistan's 2004 presidential and parliamentary elections. Rumsfeld approved the request, temporarily boosting the size of the U.S. force there at that time to about 15,000 troops.

A report issued last weekend by majority Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said that Rumsfeld refused U.S. commanders' requests in December 2001 for U.S. troops to deploy on the mountainous Afghan-Pakistan border to prevent Osama bin Laden and his closest followers from escaping into Pakistan.

Instead, Rumsfeld and his top commander for the region, Army Gen. Tommy Franks, chose to rely on U.S. air power, ragtag Afghan militias and Pakistan's ill-equipped paramilitary Frontier Corps.

"On or around December 16, two days after writing his will, bin Laden and an entourage of his bodyguards walked unmolested out of Tora Bora and disappeared into Pakistan's unregulated tribal area. Most analysts say he is still there today," said the report. "Rumsfeld said at the time that he was concerned that too many U.S. troops in Afghanistan would create an anti-American backlash and fuel a widespread insurgency."

For the most part, however, U.S. commanders knew better than to ask Rumsfeld for additional troops, aware that the Bush administration's priority was the 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq, said a senior U.S. defense official who was involved in the Afghan war. He spoke to Nukes and Spooks on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the issue publicly.

"It was clear that Iraq was the main effort and Afghanistan an economy of force mission," said the senior U.S. defense official. "Hence, resources would be allocated accordingly."

Asked about Rumsfeld's statement, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said that Obama had been referring to a request made in 2008 for additional troops, and he called on Rumsfeld to explain, "whether he thinks that the effort in Afghanistan was sufficiently resourced during his tenure as secretary of defense."

We here at Nukes and Spooks are all ears.

For our younger readers eager to track Santa’s progress, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) has put out this website for you to follow his movements. You can also track him on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr.

Santa trackers will begin answering phones and replying to email at 4:00 a.m. MST (6:00 a.m. EST) on Christmas Eve. Children of all ages can call the NTS toll free number 1-877-Hi-NORAD (1-877-446-6723) or send an email to noradtrackssanta@gmail.com. 

According to the website, starting on Dec. 24, children can watch Santa prepare his sleigh and reindeer. And for those of you interested in the history of NORAD tracking, here is the story, straight from NORAD’s press release:

The NTS program began on Dec. 24, 1955, after a phone call was made to the Continental Air Defense Command Operations Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. The call was from a local youngster who dialed a misprinted telephone number in a local newspaper advertisement. The commander at Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station, Colo. who answered the phone that night gave the youngster the information requested – the whereabouts of Santa. This began the tradition of tracking Santa, a tradition that was carried on by NORAD when it was formed in 1958.
 
The NTS program has grown immensely since first presented on the Internet in 1998. The Web site receives millions of unique visitors from hundreds of countries and territories around the world. In addition, the NTS Operations Center will be occupied for 25 hours with over 1,200 volunteers on Christmas Eve, who will be receiving hundreds of thousands phone calls and emails from families around the world.
 
We look forward to helping you with NORAD Tracks Santa!
 
Enjoy!