It has been 14 years since the September 11, 2001 terrorists attacks on the United States. Following the tragic events of that day, the terrorist threat has strongly swept through the U.S. in the past decade and a half. President Obama announced today that although the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan ended in December and only 9,800 troops remain, he has decided to halt this withdrawal and implement 5,500 more troops across Afghanistan. As far as his motives go Obama plans to further achieve the military mission as far as training Afghans, preventing attacks, and respecting human rights. He plans for 9,800 of troops stationed there until the end of his term in 2017. President Obama explained that the fragility of the United States and its security is at high risk and for the well being of this nation he must extend military presence in Afghanistan. As Afghan forces grow stronger and need to protect themselves from the Taliban, he believes this will offer lasting progress in Afghanistan. Obama stated that he "will not allow Afghanistan to be a safe haven for terrorists to attack our nation again" and went on to reiterate his motives in expressing that although "Americas combat mission in Afghanistan may be over our commitment to Afghanistan and its people endures." Despite public opinion, Obama also stated that his support for the Afghan government and its civilians continues and he wishes to prevent attacks unto them and our homeland as well. He explained that military presence will allow for protecting the future of Afghanistan and also the national security of the United States as a whole. In the past 14 years military presence in Afghanistan has pushed the Taliban back and provided a safer nation for its people. However, Obama sees the constant threat of terrorism on the Afghan people and feels obligated to protect the innocent. However this announcement has aggravated many. President Obama's initial promises of his presidency were that he was to end both wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. However he has evidently not followed through with his promise but expresses that he has reason to implement more troops in Afghani land. He ended by expressing "Every single day, Afghan forces are out there fighting and dying to protect their country. If they were to fail, it would endanger the security of us all".
Do you agree or disagree with Obama's intentions and actions?
Does this protect our country or is this a notion of war?
Has Obama not followed through with promises or is he providing for the well being of this nation?
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/16/world/asia/obama-troop-withdrawal-afghanistan.html?_r=0
http://video.foxnews.com/v/4559917172001/obama-us-commitment-to-afghanistan-endures/?playlist_id=928378949001#sp=show-clips
7 comments:
Obama's initial proclamation that he was going to end the war in Iraq and Afghanistan were genuine when he made those promises. But four years ago, Obama pulled all of our troops out of Iraq as promised. The country collapsed upon itself and Islamic extremist took hold of the country with very little resistance. So it is difficult for Obama to make this decision as pulling out troops could very well end up the same as it did in Iraq. So I believe that Obama is correct in continuing to implement troops into Afghani lands.
In 2011, when Obama was seeking re-election and boasting a plan to pull all troops out of Afghanistan, the Afghani Prime Minister increased laws against certain religious sects and started to encourage the rise of the Islamic State. But this stopped when Obama agreed to not pull out troops. The Afghani Prime Minister has worked with Obama these past few years to create a more peaceful nation. So maybe putting in troops is the only way to repress the rise of ISIS in Afghanistan. This will be for the overall benefit of America in the long run.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/16/world/asia/lessons-of-iraq-loom-over-obamas-decision-to-keep-troops-in-afghanistan.html?_r=0
A large part of President Obama's legacy-to-be was his will to end continued U.S. deployment in both Iraq and Afghanistan. That being said, the President has failed in doing so, regardless of the circumstances that he has faced. However, the war against the Taliban within Afghanistan has come to such a point that to give up and watch the country crumble, would in hindsight, be a colossal waste of American time and money. Not that going to war in the first place wasn't anyway. Afghanistan as a country is weak at this point in time, and without the assistance of NATO and the U.S. the possibility of unrest in the region is further escalated; the Afghan government has stated this themselves. As a result, President Obama stands firm in defending the fact that ground troops are necessary for upholding relative peace in the area and that the move to maintain a presence in Afghanistan is by no means a disappointing proclamation. Additionally, this allows for the desolate nation to be rebuilt under a more secure system of defense. My opinion is that this action is not an act of war as much as it is a project to harbour sustainability for a shattered people. If President Obama had a reasonable opportunity to withdraw all U.S. troops at this point in time, there would be no claim as to why he would not do it, especially considering his strong opposition to keeping men in the region. Ultimately leading me to believe that he is in fact trying to provide for increased global well-being. The United States and NATO have to commit to cleaning up the mess they've made, to cut corners is such circumstances would be even more foolish. Play it safe.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/15/politics/afghanistan-troops-obama/index.html
I agree with President Obama's decision to maintain military bases in Afghanistan and to implement more troops only because the alternative is catastrophic. By maintaining U.S. troops in Afghanistan we are taking precautionary steps to avoiding more conflict, which is more important than removing troops at this time. This was a hard call to make on the president's part because he has made it quite clear that he wants all troops removed from the middle east, but does not want a repeat of what occurred when troops were removed from Iraq. Obama believe strongly enough that it is absolutely necessary to maintain military involvement to maintain peace, or else he would fulfill his own promise, in the closing year of his term, to remove these troops.
Although stationing more troops in Afghanistan is a risk, I believe that the intention behind it is to protect our country and Obama is honoring this priority over his promise to pull all troops. Over the past 14 years our actions have proven that involvement in Afghanistan has made the area safer and that is the most important thing to consider at this time.
I believe Obama has good intentions when he plans to keep forces in Afghanistan. I do believe that this decision will protect our country as it will keep the Taliban, which has seized control of large parts of Iraq and Syria, from becoming too powerful. In addition, the risk of sending US troops is greatly alleviated since NATO and allied countries are also deployed in the fight against the Taliban. Germany is ready to extend their training mission in Afghanistan as long as the U.S. maintained enough troops to help with logistics and quick-reaction forces. The cooperation of the two countries is a clear warning to the Taliban; whether it will cause the Taliban to back off or worsen the situation, it is hard to tell. “What happened in Kunduz is a clear indication of how crucial U.S. air support is for Afghan forces. Without it, we suffer incredibly high casualties,” said an Afghan soldier. US troops are clearly helping the Afghan army, and by preventing a disaster, we could save millions of lives in the long run. I also think the bombing of the Doctors without Borders hospital influenced Obama’s decision. He may have wanted to, in a way, “make up” for the accident which Doctors without Borders claimed was an intentional airstrike.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/in-major-afghanistan-shift-obama-drops-plan-to-withdraw-most-u-s-forces-1444903203
I disagree with Obama’s actions because when he was originally elected, he promised to get our troops out of Afghanistan. I also disagree because the war going on in Afghanistan isn’t our fight. It’s a fight that has nothing to do with us that President Obama is making our own issue by getting more involved. These actions seem highly unnecessary and aren’t going to solve anything. Obama’s argument is that by doing this and sending more troops into Afghanistan to regulate violence and prevent the deaths of civilians we are protecting our own country. I believe this is false because the Taliban wouldn’t be any more of a dominating force in America than it is now. While issues in the Middle East do effect our nation, I do not believe that by adding more troops and keeping the ones currently there will solve anything but allow the death of soldiers promised a return home. In this situation, Obama has not followed through with his promises to our nation. He promised the return of our soldiers and an end to both wars in Afghanistan and Iraq; we have accomplished neither but adding more fuel to the fire in the Middle East isn’t going to help anything anyway.
Times change, and so does policy. I agree with Obama's decision, even though this in turn will cost some soldiers their lives and cost the US more resources to go into the effort. Ever since the start of the Cold War, the US decided that it was going to the forerunner in protecting freedom and democracy across the world, and since then the US has pulled itself further and further into international relations to the point where it is now impossible for the US to start pulling out today. I know Obama promised to bring home the troops time and time again, but America has been digging itself deeper and deeper into a hole since the day Communism started to spread, and we cannot get out of this hole without chaos re-emerging in the world and leaving with no one to help stop it. We are the world's leader in liberty, and unfortunately we are also stuck as the nation that has to defend it on a global scale.
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