On Thursday President Obama largely fulfilled Gen. McChrystal's request for more US boots on the ground in Afghanistan. The increase shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. The administration has long been committed to increasing troop levels and clearly understood from the beginning that a token addition of 10,000 soldiers wouldn't allow American generals to implement even a semblance of the strategy they feel is necessary to achieve victory in Afghanistan. 

But we don't just need numbers. To win the war in Afghanistan, we need more intelligence analysts, more language specialists, and greater access to technical resources like Predator drones and satellites. Without these resources, the new troops will be just as deaf and blind as the troops on the ground now.

The key proponent of these qualitative improvements is Maj. Gen. Michael T. Flynn,  a key adviser to Gen. McChrystal and a former senior intelligence officer for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The L.A. Times recently published a very interesting article on Flynn and his efforts to overhaul America's intelligence gathering efforts in Afghanistan. Money quote:

McChrystal has made protecting Afghan civilians the military's top priority. According to military theory, the safer people feel, the less likely they are to support insurgents. As a result, learning about militant groups, in many cases, has become more important than destroying them.

Flynn believes the military needs a different approach to gathering intelligence about insurgents and their networks. When attacked, insurgents move, regroup and talk -- all information that can be collected and used to build a complete picture of the enemy.

Traditionally, commanders used intelligence to plan military operations.

"Now we do the opposite," Flynn said. "We do the ops to get the intel."