A US soldier of First Squadron, 71st Cavalry writes outside his tent at a forward operating base in Dand district of Kandahar province in Afghanistan on July 20, 2010. NATO and the United States have 143,000 troops in Afghanistan, set to peak at 150,000 in coming weeks as they take a US-led counter-insurgency to the insurgents' southern strongholds in an effort to speed up an end to the war. By Manpreet Romana/AFP/Getty Images.