Obama orders Afghanistan surge

President Obama's sending 17,000 more troops to Afghanistan, including 8,000 Marines from Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, NC. When you consider that a new UN report found that civilian casualties jumped by 40% in 2008 over 2007, it really seems like Afghanistan is right on the verge of slipping out of control, and that a surge could help stabilize things. And with the strong Al Qaeda/Taliban presence in the tribal areas around Afghanistan's mountainous border with Pakistan (and increasingly, in areas of Pakistan beyond the border), Obama's campaign line about Afghanistan being the center of the war on terror seems truer than ever.

A friend of mine from DC, who is a good friend of my roommate's, is in the Navy Reserve and was recently recalled to active duty in Kabul. He's been blogging about his experiences over there, and it's definitely an interesting read. Also, the MIT International Review just published a fascinating paper on applying biogeographic theories to find Bin Laden (as seen on Rachel Maddow): PDF.