Obama to send more troops to Afghanistan

Elite force of 4,000 will train, advise Afghan army

"The change couldn't be more dramatic," said John Nagl, a former Army officer and president of the Center for a New American Security, a nonpartisan defense think tank. "The 82nd Airborne Division is the nation's shock force. They are the most elite troops in the Army. This shows how important the mission is to the Obama administration and the high priority the Army is giving it."

The deployment suggests a different approach from that taken by U.S. forces in Iraq, where the main focus was on using large U.S. combat brigades to protect the local population and decrease sectarian violence.

The U.S. teams, who will live and fight with Afghan forces, also provide a critical link to U.S. air support, should the fledgling Afghan forces be overwhelmed by Taliban fighters.

The assignment represents a major cultural shift for the service. Most rising Army officers have tried to avoid advisory duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, preferring assignments with more traditional combat brigades. Advisory team jobs have been widely seen as career killers.

The total of 21,000 new troops, added to about 6,000 authorized by the Bush administration and deployed in January, will come close to reaching the total of 30,000 that Gen. David McKiernan, the U.S. and NATO commander, had requested for this year in Afghanistan. They will bring the total U.S. component of the force to about 60,000. Non-U.S. NATO troops there now total about 32,000.