Obama’s Cautious Approach To Afghanistan
Peter Juul is an associate researcher of American Progress. He specializes in the Middle East, military affairs, and U.S national security policy.
Peter Juul wrote about Obama’s recent announcement in regards to the new strategy for the war in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Obama will send 17,000 troops and 82nd Airborne Division to train Afghan security forces. Obama insists that we need to send more troops to stabilize the national security of Afghanistan. According to the author, Obama seems to focused more on being civilized in Afghanistan. Also Obama administration suggests giving Hamid Karzai or his successor authority to improve Afghanistan’s political problem, so that the U.S. can divert from being a strong hold in their country. The author compares the new strategy of Afghanistan to Vietnam from 1965 to 1968. During that time, the U.S supported generals in Saigon which the U.S. Deployed a lot of military forces to engage communist forces, in order to give Saigon time to get its act together at which they failed to accomplish. It gave the U.S a big load of failures. This war might be similar to Vietnam geographically speaking, so the U.S. must overcome the Afghan landscape. There are high deserts with rugged hills, endless valleys, and segregated regions which will take some time for our military to adapt and over come. The author thinks that we have a decent chance to succeed in Afghanistan, if Afghan politicians act together with the U.S.
Right now the government administration of President Hamid Karzai is corrupted, his relatives are affiliated with the drug trade, and the over all government of Afghanistan is weak. Karzai is not a strong leader to bring all Afghanistan people together. In Afghanistan, military efforts have had a tendency to lose sight of their goal. Do we really have to spend another Trillion, towards another country, in the middle of this ferocious recession?
