HuffPo notes the irony in its top headline:
PEACE PRIZE?
White House Quietly Authorized 13,000 More Troops For Afghan War:
President Obama announced in March that he would be sending 21,000 additional troops to Afghanistan. But in an unannounced move, the White House has also authorized -- and the Pentagon is deploying -- at least 13,000 troops beyond that number, according to defense officials.
The additional troops are primarily support forces, including engineers, medical personnel, intelligence experts and military police. Their deployment has received little mention by officials at the Pentagon and the White House, who have spoken more publicly about the combat troops who have been sent to Afghanistan.
link
more...
The American public is already opposed to expanding troop levels in Afghanistan. Less than a third think more troops should be sent. Yet there will soon be 68,000 US troops there, more than double the number that were there when Bush left office.
In addition now to public opposition to expanding the war in Afghanistan will be the embarrassment for President Obama of being a Nobel Peace Prize Winner who isn't apparently trying very hard to end one of the two wars he inherited from Bush but instead is doubling down on it. Do they think people won't notice if they just don't talk about it?
"The 21,000 are only combat forces, and when the combat forces go in, there are a certain amount of additional forces that are required," said Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman....
"Obama authorized the whole thing. The only thing you saw announced in a press release was the 21,000," said another defense official familiar with the troop-approval process.
Could winning that Nobel Peace Prize have come at a more awkward time for the WH?