The nation's highest-ranking military officer told soldiers and Marines at Camp LeJuene, North Carolina, that the insurgency in Afghanistan has grown in the last three years and he expects casualties to rise next year as additional U.S. troops pour into the war.

A Fight To The Death

Admiral Mike Mullen
Painted a picture quite grim
For the U.S. GIs who
Sat listening to him.

We're not winning, said Mullen,
We're losing the fray;
Thus, thousands more troops
Will be on their way.

The insurgency's growing
In Afghanistan;
Seems a lot tougher going
Than when it began.

Mullen makes it quite clear,
About the what and the when
He expects a tough fight
In two-thousand-ten.

Casualties will grow,
More Americans will die;
As some here at home
Cry out and ask "why?"