Obama's Surge Into Afghanistan, Bad Or Good?

Afghan Child Shakes U.S. Soldier's Hand

On Tuesday morning, President Obama gave a con traversal speech on Afghanistan to cadets at the West Point military academy, that left many with mixed feelings. In his speech, the main tag line was:

"As Commander-in-Chief, I have determined that it is in our vital national interest to send an additional 30,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan. After 18 months, our troops will begin to come home. These are the resources that we need to seize the initiative, while building the Afghan capacity that can allow for a responsible transition of our forces out of Afghanistan."

You can read the manuscript of the speech, here. The term surge has been around military history for sometime, but was probably first commonly used during the Global War on Terrorism under the Bush Administration when they decided to send 20,000 more troops into Iraq. Does sending a Surge into Afghanistan help the situation? Well there is a number of things to consider in this case. Let me say this simply: Obama was put in a predicament. It was a "damned if he does, damned if he does not" situation. So he chose the former and became damned any way. He would have been criticized no matter what he ended up doing.

If the United States left Afghanistan entirely, several things would occur. For one, it would be deemed that Al-Qaeda and the Taliban chased the Americans out. Second, it would be a repeat of what happened to the Afghans at the end of their war with the Soviets - warlords took over (Which allowed a segue way for the Taliban to reach in). Sending more troops into Afghanistan has its pros and cons as well. The most obvious is the amount of money that has to be further spent on Afghanistan, not to mention the U.S. casualties. Would 30,000 troops make a difference? It depends, I think it might encourage other nations to send more troops in and help out. On the other hand, there is already over 32,000 American soldiers alone (Not to mention the other nations that have sent in troops as well). As a result of putting our own troops at risk, countries like Great Britain and Italy have offered to help Obama as well.

I do not agree with the Surge, what I really think is that we need to send the old troops home and send fresh ones in (Not add 30,000 more) . However, what I think is that a better strategy must be implemented in Afghanistan. We cannot just leave, as it would be a repeat of what we did in the 80s. We need to stop giving money to the Afghan government (As President Obama says in his speech), i.e. President Karzai, and it needs to be watched and put into the right places. They literally need people handling the money and putting it into communities for water, electricity, schools, and similar. Looking for Osama Bin Laden is pointless, he probably is not in Afghanistan. You cannot tell me that the Taliban with their outdated weapons have a better strategy then the Americans. The U.S. needs to take out all the Taliban and any left over Al Qaeda cells (Which only few still exist). Most run south of the border to the Pakistan, even the President makes note of this in his speech:

"After escaping across the border into Pakistan in 2001 and 2002, Al-Qaeda’s leadership established a safe-haven there."

We need to pay closer attention to our "ally" who happened to train the Taliban through their intelligence agency the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence) and those who have been causing so much trouble in that region. The Afghan people need to be trained militarily - in other words for warfare and civil unrest. Last but not least, Obama needs to do that shift from the Bush verbiage to something else. Due to his rhetoric, those listening (Americans, foreigners, and enemies alike) need to know that there is a difference between the Global War on Terror (GWoT) and "Overseas Contingency Operations" (OCO), and repeating the term Al-Qaeda throughout a speech makes him sound like George W. Bush all over again. I also feel giving a practical public deadline might give the Taliban ideas, as they can go M.I.A. for a few years, and once we all leave go back to doing the things they used to. I hope that puts light into certain things that people do not understand. President Obama did not create this mess, he is only trying to clean it up. Cut him some slack for trying, world!

What do you think of the Surge?

[Images via National Post]