O.K., so essentially, President Obama wants to send over 30,000 troops to Afghanistan, the second escalation of troops in his presidency so far. You can see here that by 2011, we will have over 100,000 troops there fighting terrorists, specifically al-Qaida (you can compare this to Vietnam troop levels here, even though Obama clearly told us they're incomparable in his speech at West Point.) So to try to understand this better, I went to try to find out how many al-Qaida are in Afghanistan. Yes, it can only really be an estimate considering the border situation, but an estimate is better than nothing.
Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the current Commander of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) of U.S. Forces Afghanistan (strangely blank) said this on September 11, 2009:
"I do not see indications of a large al-Qaida presence in Afghanistan now,"
Not to be quoted out of context, (he is a military leader after all) he also said of Al Qaeda's relationship with the Taliban:
"I do believe that al-Qaida intends to retain those relationships because they believe it is symbiotic ... where the Taliban has success, that provides a sanctuary from which al-Qaida can operate transnationally."
It's also important to realize that in 2001, when we originally went into Afghanistan, U.S. forces removed the Taliban from power. Yet, the Council on Foreign Relations does say that:
"Though the group has been out of power for several years, it remains a cultural force in the region that operates parallel governance structures aimed at undermining the U.S.-backed central government. "
Ok, so then you have to ask yourself, why is it a cultural force? Why would people openly support a group associated with supporting al-Qaida? Well, despite the Taliban's bad rap, which they've earned in spades, they've had success in "eliminating corruption, restoring peace, and allowing commerce to resume," according to Infoplease. None the less, following strict Sharia Law, they practice the stoning of women. Executions are also common place.
So why are we going to Afghanistan? Al-Quaida is barely there, and the Taliban, although still popular amongst some groups, isn't in power. Without saying it outright, President Obama essentially said we're there to prevent them from coming back into power. Prevention. As opposed to being attacked. That is essentially the Bush Doctrine, isn't it?
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