| Wednesday 2 December 2009 - 2230 GMT - BBC Two Presented by Gavin Esler in DC and Jon Sopel in London Hello from Washington. America, as we British sometimes fail to notice, is another country. When I arrived from London two days ago I was stopped as usual by the immigration authorities. I handed over my passport, my completed immigration and customs forms, was fingerprinted and photographed. "Why are you here?" the Homeland Security lady asked me. "Because the president is scheduled to announce a big increase in US troop numbers in Afghanistan." "Who do you work for?" "The BBC." "How do you spell that?" Hmmm. A tricky one. How do you spell BBC? "Er, B... B... C..." The lady looked at me. "Do you have any identification?" "You are holding my passport," I said, with a smile. I tell this story because, while I love America and lived here for many years, the ways of the US bureaucracy are often beyond weird. And now the day after President Barack Obama's big speech that huge bureaucracy, military and political, will slowly grind through to put more troops in Afghanistan and find out how to pay for it. We'll have a full report on the impact of the speech, and I am heading off to Capitol Hill to interview the man who could have been president, Republican Senator John McCain. That's if my identification papers are acceptable to the gatekeepers. Gavin. | 
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