Family Life

09.25.09 | FL News Team

A request for tens of thousands of additional U.S. troops to be sent to Afghanistan is expected to come today from General Stanley McChrystal. The request is part of a grim assessment of the situation on the ground there. Parts of General McChrystal's report have already been leaked and seem to suggest that without thousands more troops within the year, the U.S.-led counterinsurgency against the Taliban will likely fail. The report still hasn't hit the President's desk as his National Security team gets first crack at it.

McChrystal's report however, has already led President Obama to promise a complete rethink of U.S. strategy along the militant-infested border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. But that will take time, White House aides insist. Troop strength is already expected to reach 68-thousand by year's end. Meanwhile, five more U.S. troops died in three separate incidents in Afghanistan. Two were killed by a roadside bomb and a third died later of injuries from the blast. Two others died of wounds received during insurgent attacks.