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President Barack Obama makes his first trip to the Dover Air Force Base in Delaware as president, as the bodies of 18 Americans killed in Afghanistan this week return home. Colonel Wayne Shanks in Kabul was made available to Reuters by the Pentagon.

"Seeing him made a personal impact on me because these last few days have been pretty hard days here."

October has become the deadliest month for US forces in the war with some 53 killed. As Afghan voters prepare for a rematch of the presidential election, Obama continues to review his policy as he considers a request by General Stanley McChrystal to add as many as 40,000 more troops. While Afghanistan's long history of war may shape some of the thinking about future strategy, Brian Katulis of the Center for American Progress says these are very different times.

"This is not like the Soviet times in Afghanistan in the 1980s. The Soviets were facing nearly a quarter million insurgents who were backed by another superpower--the United States, and by Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.The fundamentals are different here. I mean it's the same landscape geographically, but their...the insurgency is much smaller."

More than 14,000 Soviet soldiers died over the course of its ten–year war. At least 905 American soldiers have died in Afghanistan over the last eight years.

Deborah Lutterbeck, Reuters.

Glossary [only for reference]

 Dover Air Force Base: a United States Air Force base located two miles southeast of the city of Dover, Delaware.

impact [countable] the effect or influence that an event, situation etc has on someone or something

deadly: very dangerous, likely to cause death

rematch [countable usually singular]: when two teams or people compete against each other a second time, especially when there was no clear winner in thefirst competition
shape [transitive]: to influence something such as a belief, opinion etc and make it develop in a particular way

Center for American Progress: a liberal public policy research and advocacy organization.

superpower [countable]: a nation that has very great military and political power

fundamental [countable]: the most basic and important parts of something:

landscape [countable]: an area of countryside or land of a particular type, used especially when talking about its appearance

over the course of something: in a period of time or process during which something happens