Rumsfeld's staff always seemed to be waiting for something to turn up — for the problem to take care of itself, without any additional troops.
Should Mr. Obama send 20,000 troops, military analysts say, there would probably be no fourth brigade to use around the country, and parts of Helmand and the east would receive few if any additional troops.
Mr. Obama is coming under pressure from all sides, including liberals from his own party who oppose any additional troops and conservatives who are pressing for him to give General McChrystal whatever he wants.
Military officials say that three-quarters of any additional troops sent, no matter the number, will be working side by side with Afghan security forces in a "partnering" or apprentice arrangement.
When the decision was made late last year to send nearly 30,000 more troops to Iraq, General Pace served as an intermediary between the White House, which favored a large troop increase, and General Casey, the Iraq commander at the time, who wanted fewer, if any, additional troops.
This is why we need to pause to consider the wisdom of additional troop withdrawals.
Mr Galbraith, son of the economist JK, will oversee the "civilian surge" which will accompany additional troop numbers.
Sediqa Mubariz, a member of Parliament from Wardak, said in an interview that she would welcome any additional American troops in her province.
If Mr. Obama limited any additional American troops to 10,000 to 15,000, the military would deploy them largely as trainers, with some reinforcements likely in the southern province of Kandahar, the Taliban's spiritual home.
The President implied, for example, that his escalation had been conceived to support "the new Iraqi plan" to bring security to Baghdad, when it is well established that Iraq's democratically elected Prime Minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, did not ask for any additional American troops and has agreed to accept them only under pressure.
