Why an Increase of Troops Would be Beneficial to our Generation

Al Qaeda according to the majority of experts is the United States' biggest threat. They have been directly connected to 9/11 and are the reason for the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. They are a decentralized organization that have bases all over the middle east. Since the US invasion of Afghanistan a good amount of key leaders of the group are thought to be hiding on the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Some even think that they are training troops in the more primitive villages of Pakistan. Al Qaeda's overall goal is to unite Muslims all over the world and eliminate western influence in these areas. Osama Bin Laden has stated that this can only be done through violence. Some may ask what this has to do with the United States, I personally don't see a connection either. But, Bin Laden views the United States as his biggest enemy and feels that the only way for his goal to succeed is by attacking this enemy.

Increasing the number of troops in Afghanistan and switching the focus from Iraq is crucial to our generation because our countries biggest threat is hiding underground in this region (and along the border of Pakistan) regrouping and plotting. If we let them have this time to regroup we will know nothing but a constant time of fighting for the safety of our country. It's frightening to think that the people who planned the attack of 9/11 are still living free and training more members possibly for another, stronger attack. I never viewed it this way until i started reading reports and articles about the terrorist groups and the war in Afghanistan. I was actually among the significant number of American's that had pushed Afghanistan to the back of my mind to protest the war in Iraq.

It is already evident in Afghanistan that the Taliban is learning from it's mistakes in Iraq. Making the war more difficult for the US troops. The war is probably even more difficult for them when most American's are so focused on the war in Iraq. President Bush just ordered a surge of the troops in Afghanistan at the beginning of this year. Due to the increase in fighting in Southern Afghanistan. ISAF Commander McNeill estimates that 400,000 troops would be needed to put Afghanistan under control. This illustrates how serious the risks for our country are with the Afghanistan issue. The death rate in Afghanistan is also considerably higher than that in Iraq. According to ABC news it is double the death rate in Iraq for US soldiers in Afghanistan.

If we stay focused on the war in Iraq while the crisis in Afghanistan is becoming more and more significant as more time goes by this is going to become a very big problem that our generation and future generations are going to have to deal with for years to come. The longer we give Al Qaeda to collaborate with other terrorist groups around the world, and build up their own troops on the borders of Afghanistan and Pakistan the harder it's going to be to secure the safety of our nation. Bush has made small steps to increase our efforts, he even went as far to approve special forces taking action in Pakistan. But, we need more than special operations to eliminate the influence of Al Qaeda in the middle east.

The time has come for us to actually directly deal with the terrorist threats to our country. Saddam Hussein was a dangerous man, but, their have been facts uncovered that show he had no connection with Bin Laden previous to 9/11. Now there is evidence of Al Qaeda operating in Iraq. This is proof of their sphere of influence growing. Hopefully both of the presidential candidates are ready for this challenge.