War: Blog 1

The United States has been heading warfare in Afghanistan for more than a decade now, and American commanders are now insisting that their Afghan counterparts take over the fight, as the feeling for U.S. troops to fully pull out has never been higher. Journalist Douglas Wissing interviewed Deputy Commander Col. Tim Sullivan, in which the two discussed what this would mean for the future of Afghan forces. Sullivan said "Our mission was to go from a partnered role with the Afghan National Security Forces to an advise and assist role. We kind of gave it the 'tough love' approach' (http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/22/opinion/afghanistan-us-tough-love/index.html?hpt=wo_mid).

Two weeks ago, President Barack Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai held discussions about the removal of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, which concluded that by 2014 U.S. troops would be pulled out and only a resident fore of 2,500 troops or less will be left to act as coalition forces with the Afghanistan National Security. Many Afghans are opposed to this deadline, suggesting that the Afghan forces will not be able to defend everyone, without the aid of the U.S. air force and military fire power. 

At what point are we to consider the evacuation date of 2014? Is this a United States desertion of our duty as world police to protect other countries from terrorism, or is Afghanistan considered to be an unrepairable lost cause, forever continuing as the battle field of world super powers. Ahmad Majidyar, senior research associate at the American Enterprise Institute, firmly believes the Afghan government requires U.S. and NATO help to fund, train and equip its 350,000 security personnel for many years beyond 2014.
Then there is the case of the Afghan terrorist detainees; the U.S. has already handed over 3,000 top ranking terrorist suspects to the Afghan government, and is still keeping many more, stating that the Afghans are not yet ready to take over the control of all prisoners, because many are believed to dangerous and/or affiliated with al Queda.

It seems there needs to be a more solid exit plan laid out for the U.S. military, keeping in mind that it is of the utmost importance to leave Afghanistan with a ready trained defense of their own. The 2014 evacuation could prove to be too premature, and may result in leaving the state of Afghanistan worse than it was a decade ago.


http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2013/01/11/u-s-needs-significant-military-presence-in-afghanistan/

http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/22/opinion/afghanistan-us-tough-love/index.html?hpt=wo_mid


Clyde Lovelady
SOC 202
1:26 PM
1/25/2013