Come Back to Afghanistan Blog #9

President Obama recently changed focus from Iraq to Afghanistan. He did this for a few reasons, one being to protect the Afghani people from an oppressive Taliban reign. The Taliban has been controlling villages in eastern Afghanistan and western Pakistan, and its strength is growing. Rather than “blindly staying the course,” as President Bush so eloquently put it, President Obama has decided to shift our attention to the extending Taliban and extremist groups near the Afghani-Pakistani border. He has mostly decided to do so because of the denial of necessary equipment for troops in Afghanistan, which was caused by the excess funding of the war in Iraq. “For three years, our commanders have been clear about the resources they need for training. And those resources have been denied because of the war in Iraq. Now, that will change,” he said in his speech in late March. There is controversy over whether or not pulling troops out of Iraq to send them to Afghanistan is a good idea. Some leftists, a group called Peace Action West, have sent emails in order to get news of what the new surge in military force may do to the situation in Afghanistan. They believe that if we send a large sum of troops there, it will only unite the many insurgent groups and ultimately cause more American casualties and will further strengthen insurgent powers. However, many believe that the new flow of soldiers will be a very good thing in order to help Afghanistan regain its strength and rebuild its government, which is at the moment suffering great losses of power over its eastern provinces. US forces will be able to repress the insurgent forces with more funds and 17,000-21,000 new troops from Iraq. This could ultimately mean a new and better turn of events for Afghanistan.