The Associated Press] says Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Thursday told Marines being deployed to Afghanistan that a U.S. victory there would look similar to progress in Iraq, but he cautioned that more civilians with skills beyond the battlefield will be needed, The Obama administration has called up 17,000 more troops to supplement the 38,000 American troops already fighting a resurgence of the Taliban. It said last month it would send several hundred citizens, from agronomists to economists, to work on reconstruction and development issues as part of the military’s counterinsurgency campaign.

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