On Tuesday, President Obama made a very important speech on the future of Afghanistan. His speech focused on his strategy to make Afghanistan a more secure country free of terrorism and safe for democracy. His plan calls for sending an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan and bringing them home within 18 months. Also, he said that America will write no more blank checks to Afghanistan.

I am sure this decision to send more American troops in harm’s way was not an easy one. I am sure that he stayed up many nights talking to many people and had many long hours of deep reflection before coming to this decision. No one should think the president made this decision lightly.

Now I am no big fan of war. I believe that when President Bush sent more and more troops to support the Iraq War it was the wrong idea. In the past I have repeatedly said that Iraq was not the right war. We should’ve spent our time focusing on where the terrorists actually came fromm, being Afghanistan. That’s why I support President Obama’s decision.

The president would not have had to go and send more troops to Afghanistan if the prior administration had spent their time focused on where the terrorists were actually at. If we had caught bin Laden and completely eradicated Al Qaeda, there’s a good chance we would not have the instability that we see in Afghanistan today. During the Bush administration the military leadership in Afghanistan made repeated requests to send over additional troops.

All their pleas fell on deaf ears. It was all about Iraq for President Bush and his national secrity team at the time. In President Obama’s speech I was pleased to hear he will be bringing the Iraq war to a close. That is the right choice for the president to make, as our focus should be on where the terrorists who attacked us on Sept. 11. Not on a war that was based on faulty intelligence and deception.

One thing that President Obama focused on in his speech was that our troops are not going to stay there forever. He said our troops will begin coming home within 18 months instead of getting ready for third and fourth deployments.

This is important because America needs to show our commitment is not open-ended. The Afghanistan government is going to have to take the lead on securing their country. That means getting rid of the corruption and stabilizing the economy. They are going to have to take the lead role in rooting out terrorist and making sure the country is not a safe haven for terrorists.

No one likes sending our friends, fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers and loved ones into harm’s way. But I’m sure that any soldier will tell you they would rather go and take out the right enemies before they have a chance to strike our homeland once again. That is the choice that we have.

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