President Barack Obama approved adding some 17,000 US troops for the flagging war in Afghanistan, his first significant move to change the course of a conflict that his closest military advisers have warned the United States is not winning. 'This increase is necessary to stabilize a deteriorating situation in Afghanistan, which has not received the strategic attention, direction and resources it urgently requires,' Obama said in a statement. That was a slap at his predecessor, George W Bush, whom Obama has accused of slighting urgent national security needs in Afghanistan in favour of war in Iraq.
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Image: Members of the Army's 4th Brigade Combat team (airborne) 25th Infantry Division stand at attention during a deployment ceremony in Anchorage, Alaska on February 3.
