September 24, 2009 - Concern is rising in Congress over a sharp increase in U.S. troop deaths in Afghanistan when military officials acknowledge that American service members are facing greater risks under a new strategy that emphasizes protecting Afghan civilians.

On July 2, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, issued a directive restricting the military's use of airstrikes and artillery bombardments. In July and August, the number of Afghan civilians killed by coalition forces was 19, compared with 151 for the same two months last year.

Over the same period, U.S. troop deaths in the country more than doubled - 96 this year, from 42 last year - prompting worries that McChrystal's constraints are creating advantages for a resurgent Taliban.

McChrystal, in a major assessment of the war, wrote that coalition troops must minimize their time in armored vehicles and walled bases and "radically increase" joint operations with Afghan forces. These steps, he said, mean greater risk for coalition troops in the near term but could "ultimately save lives in the long run."

Defense Secretary Robert Gates and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, have acknowledged that the strategy has elevated the risk for U.S. troops.

Members of Congress have voiced concern about the increase in U.S. deaths, one of the factors behind growing public dissatisfaction with the war.

"I am troubled if we are putting our troops at greater risk in order to go to such extremes to avoid Afghan casualties," said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

President Barack Obama and his national security advisers are considering McChrystal's assessment, which calls for intensifying the counterinsurgency strategy and dispatching additional forces.

At the Pentagon on Wednesday, press secretary Geoff Morrell said McChrystal would ask this week for additional U.S. forces for Afghanistan- a number that officials said could reach as high as 40,000 troops. But Morrell said that request could be revised if White House officials alters the counterinsurgency strategy they committed to six months ago.

Reports of widespread fraud in Afghanistan's elections last month raised questions of whether the counterinsurgency strategy can work where the government lacks credibility.

"There is a commitment on everyone's part to work this complex issue as quickly as possible, but without rushing it," Morrell said. "It is far more important that we make sure the strategy we are pursuing is the correct one and the president and his team are comfortable with it."

Dallas Morning News