The war in Afghanistan is responsible for much debate, money, time and energy in the politics of the U.S. and the world. Obama has a lot of issues going on- he is fighting to get his healthcare reform ideas through Congress. He is preparing the country’s message for the coming Copenhagen summit on green issues, and this week he has spent way too much time talking about an arrest and the race issues that continue to be present in American society.

And then there is that war in Afghanistan, still raging years after the Bush Administration decided the best way to atone for the evils of the Taliban and al-Qaeda was to invade that country. Do I know what’s going on over there? No. Do I have any concept of how many lives have been saved because we have been aggressive? No. But the war there seems unsustainable, as in, there is no way to win other than just kill everybody who doesn’t like us, and that isn’t going to happen, so the war will go on forever- like Orwell was talking about. We may even change who is on who’s side later, but the war will go on.
Well, this one needs more players, according to Obama and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who agreed this week that they needed to improve the sharing of the military burden with other NATO allies in Afghanistan.  What does that even mean? It means, as British armed forces head so succinctly put it, that Britain is doing “much more than its fair share.”

Them’s fightin’ words.

Britain announced they were going to send an additional 125 troops to Afghanistan as replacements for soldiers killed or wounded in an offensive against the Taliban.

"They agreed on the importance of better military and civilian burden-sharing with NATO allies," a statement from Brown's office said.

Britain has added troops recently, making the number of British troops as just over 9,000. Ostensibly, the troops are there to ensure safety leading up to and during the presidential election next month.

Britain has the second most troops in Afghanistan, behind the United States. The U.S. and Britain are currently involved in a series of major offenses against the Taliban in southern Afghanistan, and 19 British soldiers have been killed this month, making this month one of the highest totals for casualties since 2001.

When that starts to happen, people start to ask questions. Like- Do we have enough people there to get the job done? Are we winning? Making progress? Is there something else we should be doing? Should we be there at all? Why did those kids die again?

Obama and Brown say that yes, progress is being made- and that troop numbers are essential with the coming elections.

"Going forward, there needed to be a continued balance between security, governance and economic development as part of a comprehensive approach, with increased training of Afghan security forces," the statement said.

There are plenty of voices in both the U.S. and Britain that want out of Afghanistan and have plenty to say about why. With high death tolls and no discernible progress, those voices will only get louder.