Reuters:

The first deployment of a planned United States surge of up to 30,000 troops, has moved into bases in two key provinces of east Afghanistan, officials said on Tuesday.

The U.S. has pledged between 20,000 and 30,000 additional troops for Afghanistan, where violence has increased markedly since Taliban-led insurgents regrouped in 2005.

The first batch, from the 3rd Brigade of the 10th Mountain Division, have settled in Logar and Wardak provinces neighboring Kabul. They are reinforcing an existing deployment of the 101st Airborne, “the Screaming Eagles.”

“The brigade is the first element of its size to deploy exclusively into these two provinces, increasing the U.S. presence there by thousands,” U.S. forces said in a statement.

A typical U.S. brigade consists of around 3,500 soldiers.

U.S. forces said key members of the brigade, who started to arrive in late November 2008, have met with community leaders in Logar and Wardak as part of a wider strategy to engage with local systems of governance.

President Barack Obama, who has pledged to make Afghanistan the cornerstone of his foreign policy, is expected to approve the remaining troop increase, which has been in the pipeline since last year.

But without clear goals laid out by the administration, it’s hard to see what the troop increase will achieve. Maybe that’s why support for escalation is running low among the American people.

And maybe that’s why legislators and policymakers are raising more and more questions about the escalation:

“There are a lot of questions as to what victory and the redeployment out of Iraq means,” as well as plans to bolster forces in Afghanistan, said Rep. John McHugh of New York, the top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee.

President Barack Obama has vowed to shift military resources away from Iraq and move them toward Afghanistan and Pakistan, which he says is the central front in the struggle against terrorism and extremism. In a plan initiated during the Bush administration and endorsed by Obama, the Pentagon is planning to double the 34,000 contingent of U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

But expectations in the troubled region may have to be tempered as top military advisers focus on showing even small security gains and development progress quickly.

“That’s clearly the message I’m getting is, `what are the near-term goals going to be?’ ” Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said when asked about Obama’s agenda for Afghanistan.

While lawmakers mostly support the plan to send more troops, several Democrats have expressed the need for a clearer strategy.

Without an idea of when the commitment would end, “we tend to end up staying in different places and not necessarily resolving problems in a way that fits our national interest,” said Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., a Senate Armed Services Committee member.

As boots hit the ground, hawks will need to prove to the American people – and now to skeptical elites – that troop increases are bringing not only enhanced security, but also a clear path toward a resolution of the conflict on the political level.

And check out that quote from John McHugh. Are we going to say Republican support for “Obama’s war” collapse as the first body bags from the escalation start coming home? That would leave hawks in a lonely place in