To start things off:

• I do agree with us having some amount of troops in Afghanistan.
• I do not agree with the number that is in there.
• I do not agree with us sending in more troops.
• I do believe that if faced with the problem of our mentally unstable country wanting 40,000 more troops in Afghanistan, we should not send in 30,000 to justify it. I think 10,000 would suffice, and that’s still a lot of troops being sent in.

So now assuming that President Obama is attempting to live up to his promises and our (we the people’s) expectations, I think he did what most people would have done, including myself, had I been in his position. But the conclusion that he came up with was a bit more extreme than what I, and many others like myself, would have come up with.

The President tried to make compromises that have now caused an uproar of approval and disapproval. He took the 40,000 that they asked for, and gave them 30,000. The problem with a compromise like this, is that he’s working in the tens of thousands. So to cut it back only ten thousand is a lot, but at the same time, not enough.

Another flaw in this compromise is that there are already 71,000 troops in Afghanistan. I just don’t understand, at this point, how adding 30,000 troops to an already overabundant number of 71,000 troops will help us solve their problems. I feel that us (the United States that is) pumping in tens of thousands of United States citizens to a country (that is smaller than the state of Texas), which already has tens of thousands of our troops who really shouldn’t be there is just not a very good idea.

Now, I didn’t completely follow the President’s campaign, but from what I understand, things like this were not supposed to happen. I can fully agree with why we have troops in Afghanistan already; why we must keep them there, and why it seems like a good idea, but I just truly do not understand why we must change the number of troops that we have in Afghanistan from 71,000 to 101,000.

I can see how it may speed the process up a bit, but we already have way too many U.S. solders in the country plus all the non-American troops adds to it, and I feel as if we’re just trying to justify a cause for them being in there by pushing solders into there, and calling it a war on terrorism.

sources:

http://www.elon.edu/pendulum/Story.aspx?id=3095

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/12/obama-sending-30000-more-troops-to-afghanistan.php

http://www.examiner.com/x-31965-Military-Headlines-Examiner~y2009m12d9-Afghan-president-says-his-country-needs-US-troops-at-least-5-more-years

http://www.nytimes.com/ http://www.cnn.com/