The Surge, Part II?
Almost a year ago to the day, Dinner Topics gave you the basics on “The Surge,” George Bush’s deployment of 30,000 additional troops to Iraq. This time around, the president is Barack Obama and the surge is in Afghanistan1.
During last night’s televised presidential address, President Obama announced the need for an additional 30,000 American troops to be sent to Afghanistan. He also cited July 2011 as the tentative date to bring them home, giving the surge about 18 months to work if all goes according to plan.
What is Obama’s reasoning for the additional troops?
The U.S. commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, has been requesting extra troops (he was hoping for 40,000) in the hopes that more American troops will lead to more support and more training of the Afghan army, as well as increased protection of Afghan families from the intimidating Taliban. The idea is that once the Afghan army grows enough to become self-sustaining, a structured government and equipped military presence will enable American troops to return home.
Of course, Afghanistan is still tribal in nature (making a powerful central government near impossible), decades behind the world technologically, and one of the world’s poorest nations, so the idea that another country’s military can somehow solve hundreds of years of intense and often violent conflict is beyond naive. That’s why this makes for a great Dinner Topic – it’s got a world of factual, ethical, and moral opinions on both sides of the issue.
Hoping to please both sides, Obama instituted the timeline along with the surge. Instead, opponents of any troop involvement are still mad while many supporters of a bigger war feel that a deadline severely hampers the mission.
Got an opinion? Do you agree with the surge? Should there be a timeline on international activity? Speak out in the comment section!
Read on:
WSJ.com – Obama Bets Big on Troop Surge
Time.com – Left Out: How to Grow the Afghan Army
Time.com – Skepticism Greets Obama’s Speech in Afghanistan
- for a reminder on Afghanistan, check out this October post ↩
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War mongers. When will they just build a large wall around Afghanistan and let those people fight it out amoung themselves and leave the USA alone.
Bring home the troops and don’t let anyone in.