Poland has announced that it will deploy 600 more troops, raising the nation's total to nearly 3,000. Romania and Turkey are reported to have been tapped for 600 more troops apiece. The Czech Republic will double its contingent to 600 soldiers and add a combat helicopter squadron and purchase "Raven U.S. remote-controlled miniature unmanned aerial vehicles (MUAV) for 20 million crowns that are to help protect Czech soldiers in foreign missions, mainly in Afghanistan...." [20]
Slovakia will more than double its almost 250 troops. The world's newest nation, Montenegro, is deploying its first batch of soldiers to join those already in Afghanistan from fellow Balkans nations Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Romania and Slovenia.
What fresh U.S. and NATO ally forces will confront in the war zone is indicated by a brief report from the Voice of Russia eleven days ago:
"Between 7,000 and 10,000 militants of Taliban, Al Qaeda, Islamic Jihad and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan have been moved from central and southeastern Afghanistan northward to cut northern supply routes for the NATO-led coalition forces.
"Interfax agency quotes a senior Russian military source as saying that almost the whole of northern Afghanistan has been under Taliban's control since June." [21]
Combined Western military deaths this year are approaching 500, making 2009 the deadliest year of the war.
On November 16 the head of French military forces in Afghanistan, Brigadier General Marcel Druart, barely escaped being killed in a rocket attack only 30 miles from the capital.
At the same time new German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg paid an unannounced visit to northern Afghanistan and the helicopter convoy he was travelling in came under fire.
Four days earlier five Swedish soldiers, part of a contingent of 500 troops heading up NATO ISAF operations in the north of Afghanistan also, were wounded in a bomb attack while Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt was visiting the country.
Swedish Radio reported on November 19 that the nation's parliament authorized the extended deployment of Swedish troops and even approved as many as 855 soldiers to serve under NATO command.
Mounting attacks on NATO supply convoys have spread from northwestern Pakistan where the Khyber Pass has been blocked to Balochistan on Afghanistan's southeastern border.
U.S. and NATO attack helicopters and fighter jets continue to violate Pakistani airspace and U.S. President Obama recently sent a letter to the nation's government "stepping up pressure on Pakistan to expand its fight against Taliban and al Qaeda militants, warning that the success of [the U.S.'s] new Afghanistan strategy depends on it...." [22]
The Pentagon is also escalating drone missile attacks inside Pakistan and intensifying bombing runs in Afghanistan.
"The US has carried out more than 40 attacks with its pilotless, missile-firing aircraft in north-west Pakistan this year...." [23]
In October U.S. and NATO airstrikes were the highest in any month since June of 2008, despite assurances from McChrystal and the White House that they have been decreased. "Coalition warplanes dropped 647 bombs during 2,359 close-air support sorties....The bomb total is the highest since July 2008, when 752 bombs were released....The airstrike numbers don't include strafing runs, attacks by special operations AC-130 gunships, launches of small missiles or helicopter attacks." [24]
....
Ten years ago the world was preparing to welcome the advent of a new millennium, some with eager anticipation and others with alarm.
No one could have foreseen that the new century and millennium would usher in a war in Afghanistan that in a few weeks will enter its tenth calendar year.
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