by Heidi K. Zirtzlaff
-USA-

On Saturday, the Washington Post reported that US President Barack Obama remains committed to his strategy in Afghanistan and that no major changes will be announced in his upcoming December review. A senior administration official reported that "any adjustments to the current strategy would be akin to 'moving the rabbit ears around a little bit to get better reception.'"

During a summer course at the Naval Postgraduate School I began to understand the significance of the current strategy’s civilian component. By spring 2010, the US civilian presence outside Kabul had quadrupled to over 350 personnel and the overall number of US civilians in Afghanistan had tripled to 992. Civilians are deployed both in the capital and in the provinces to provide their broad range of expertise in cooperation with existing military efforts. The success of this civilian surge is crucial to the success of the ultimate goal of sustainable peace.