Jo's essay re-printed on the Huffington Post.

The Senate Appropriations Committee completed its markup of the Fiscal Year 2010 Defense Appropriations bill on September 9. The bill includes $497.6 billion for the Department of Defense’s annual “base” budget (not including funding for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan). This is roughly $3.5 billion below the Obama Administration’s request ($501.1 billion) and $15.4 billion above current levels.

The Obama Administration is in the process of preparing a set of benchmarks which will be used to gage the progress of U.S. military and civilian operations in Afghanistan. Ordered by Congress, the benchmarks are due by September 24. In addition, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, has just released an interim assessment of the situation in the region. It has been widely reported that as a result of this assessment, Gen. McChrystal may request that as many as 45,000 additional U.S. troops be sent to Afghanistan.

The following are quick facts about the U.S. commitment to Afghanistan to date. We hope they are useful to you to you as you follow this issue.