34,000 Support Troops to Afghanistan

Well, how about that?

WaPo reports that the troop increase is primarily for support operations,"including engineers, medical personnel, intelligence experts and military police."

I'm no expert on deployment strategy, but it would make sense to me that 34,000 support troops are needed not only to support those in country now, but for an expected increase in combat troops in the future. Right? That seems like a big number to me, a number that would be essential to a combat troop increase of oh, say, 40,000?

Maybe Obama has gotten his head screwed on straight regarding Afghanistan. Or maybe I'm being overly optimistic. Either way, we should know soon enough.

Russ