The other surge.

Byline: The Register-Guard

President Bush was wrong to order a surge of U.S. troops into Baghdad, but he's well justified in calling for a sustained new military and political effort to confront resurgent Taliban forces in Afghanistan.

Bush announced last Thursday that he will continue a temporary increase of 3,200 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, and he urged Congress to give him nearly $12 billion more to accelerate training and reconstruction programs in the country.

The president also exhorted NATO allies to follow the U.S. lead and increase their commitments in Afghanistan. As for NATO countries that have placed ludicrous restrictions on how and where their troops and equipment can be used, Bush rightly called on them to join the fight against the Taliban and al-Qaeda forces whose presence has metastasized in the country.

U.S. officials have long cited Afghanistan as a model of success in the war on terror. But the nation has steadily been sliding into chaos and carnage. That's a matter of particular concern for Oregonians, because more than 950 National Guard troops from this state have been deployed since last year in Afghanistan to train that country's army.

The past year has seen a disturbing increase in attacks on U.S. and other NATO troops, as well as on the Afghan government's forces and officials. Roadside and suicide bombings, once rare, have become routine. While the winter has slowed the fighting, U.S. and NATO forces are bracing for an outbreak of fierce attacks when the snow melts in the Hindu Kush.

In his speech, Bush could not have been expected to acknowledge that the situation in Afghanistan is the direct result of U.S. neglect - but that is clearly the case. Nearly four years ago, the Bush administration shifted its strategic focus and the bulk of its military might to Iraq before finishing the job in Afghanistan. Taliban remnants were left scattered like seed corn throughout the country, and the 2002 Tora Tora debacle left Osama bin Laden and many of al-Qaeda's core leaders alive and on the loose.

Bush and then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld compounded the error by resisting calls for an expansion of either U.S. or allied forces in Afghanistan. Even with the Pentagon's recent increase of U.S. troop levels to 27,000 - 50 percent more than at the same time last year, and six times the number of American soldiers who were in Afghanistan in 2002 - there are still too few U.S. and coalition troops in the field to adequately secure Afghanistan and roll back the Taliban.

There are roughly 45,000 coalition soldiers in Afghanistan, and another 40,000 in the Afghan army. By contrast, there were nearly 150,000 coalition troops and 134,000 Iraqi troops in pre-surge Iraq. Yet Iraq is 50 percent smaller than Afghanistan and also has a smaller population.

Bush's call for NATO countries to lift restrictions on their troops' deployment and participation in combat was long overdue. Commanders in the field shouldn't be handcuffed by unrealistic and politically driven limitations on their range of oper- ations.

More than military solutions will be required to turn the tide. The United States and its allies must significantly increase their assistance to Afghanistan's struggling government. In many parts of the country, the Taliban and its allies are delivering better governance and security than the government. Until Afghanistan's government can successfully compete for the hearts and minds of the people by providing security, basic services and jobs, the insurgency will continue to have little difficulty recruiting followers and fighters.

Finally, the Bush administration must push Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf into finally confronting leaders in the remote regions of his country that border Afghanistan and stopping them from providing a safe haven and staging ground for Taliban and al-Qaeda forces.

The situation in Afghanistan is serious, but still a far cry from the hopeless death spiral of Iraq. There's still time to save this struggling country, and Bush's renewed focus on that goal is both welcome and necessary.