Tonight, President Obama will outline his strategy of the completion of our current mission in Afghanistan. It has been more than eight years since President Bush launched the war in that country in response to the al Qaeda attack on the United States in September 2001.
As it turns out, the latest reports are that we came surprisingly close to capturing Osama bin Laden, but let him slip through our fingers as we were distracted by the initiation of a new war effort in Iraq. There are many who wish for us to pull out of Afghanistan altogether just as we are in the process of pulling out of Iraq. To me, that is wrong thinking. The people who did us grave harm in September of 2001 are in Afghanistan and to paraphrase Dennis Green, former coach of the Arizona Cardinals after losing to the Chicago Bears, " We can’t let them off the hook."
CNN has done a very good job in putting together a sheet of frequently asked questions (FAQ) regarding the deployment of the 34,000 troops increase the president is expected to announce tonight. This increase will bring our troop strength up to over 100,000 troops in the country. The FAQ is located here. We simply cannot allow al Qaeda or the Taliban to wiggle off our hook this time. Collectively, they have already demonstrated that they have the ability to strike us on our own streets. This troop surge is a good start to eliminating them as a threat permanently.
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