Are We Training or Re-Training in Afghanistan?

As I listened to President Obama's speech from West Point many things were going through my mind. One was that it took 3 months to assemble this speech of about 45 minutes. Two was, why this speech was not delivered from the Oval Office in The White House where tax dollars are already paid to conduct these speeches rather than pay extra to the Federal Government to have The President travel to an already scriptive group of Military Cadets which would be unable to voice opposition in the strategy if they wanted to.

My third thought was, Does anyone remember Jimmy Carter? He was the President of the United States from 1977 to 1981. He was as well the one who sent the United States in to the borders of Afghanistan and Pakistan to train insurgents in their war against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. It is not like the Afghan Government has never been trained on how to defend their own country.

As President Obama spoke I tried very hard to create a rally with i myself to hang on his next word. [But] was unable to feel the morale builder I was waiting on to say (yes! lets do this and go for all the marbles). I agree we need more troops. My agreement is based merely on the fact that we need to increase troops to finish a job we started which was to hunt down the terrorist threat to free nations and stomp it out. Our mission currently viewed by other NATO partners seems nothing more than a humanitarian effort to assist the Afghan Government in a inner reconstruct of their country with the cost to United States Taxpayers growing higher by the day.

Afghanistan for years has been noted as one of the poorest nations in the world this meet only with ridicule that tali ban warlords have made a life with in the nation to conduct business as usual with opium trade and sales for anything from weapons to training. My main concern is that our focus of defending 9/11 and those responsible has fell short to the urge to train those who would rather be left alone. Many nations have assisted over the years in the training of Afghan forces to stand on their own two feet everyone from the U.S. to Saudi Arabia as well as China have contributed in one form or another to help the Afghan''s build a strong police force within their borders.

So with the President's speech to us all with the troop increase in Afghanistan are we increasing to finish our mission or are we sending body guards to keep bully's off the Afghan Nation. If we give an exact withdrawal strategy to the Afghan Government with no occupation of the territory than if the Afghan Government wants to survive on their own two feet they will start showing progress and showing a desire to protect and preserve their own nation.