President Obama made a critical decision last week to send 30,000 thousand additional troops to Afghanistan to combat an increasingly violent and powerful Taliban. The resurgence of this group over the past year or so has turned the eyes of the country and the world, away from the disputed, and previously deadlier, war in Iraq to Afghanistan.

This “surge” strategy endorsed by President Obama was initially recommended by General Stanley A. McChrystal, in essence the head of foreign forces in Afghanistan. Obama, the constant critic of the previous administration, seems to be following in the footsteps of former President Bush in regards to wartime policies. Obama had criticized the surge strategy in Iraq, which has been at least partially attributed to the present stability in that country.

However, Obama has seen the success of the surge in Iraq and is, somewhat hypocritically, enacting a similar policy in an attempt to start his own, similar turn around in Afghanistan. But Obama has yet to realize that the thirty thousand American troops, plus whatever our very generous European allies can afford to spare (sarcasm), are just numbers at this point.

Obama is a highly intelligent man and I am disappointed that he appears to be taking such a shallow approach to finding a solution. His ideas on how to win the war resemble his approach to some of our current economic woes. To solve problems with the economy he has just thrown more and more money into circulation. Now, it appears Obama is throwing more and more troops at the problem in Afghanistan.

The solution for Afghanistan does not lie solely in numbers of troops deployed there, but the strategy that those troops are enacting. This is one of the longest conflicts that the United States has been involved in and despite our desire for a successful and stable Afghanistan, we also need to realize that at some point we will have to and we will need to leave Afghanistan.

So Obama should take some notes from President Bush’s surge, but he also must recognize the complex problems in Afghanistan and address them, using troops to help do just that. Political corruption is one of the main issues, if not the main issue, and it cannot wholly be solved by a larger troop presence.  These troops can, however, help to prevent Taliban forces from taking over more provinces, protect civilians, and start eliminating heroin production. Obama must recognize that the Iraq surge was more than just an influx of troops, it was a complex strategy that involved winning over former enemies and protecting civilians, not just eliminating al Qaeda and other insurgent groups.

I wish President Obama the best of luck seeing as the situation in Afghanistan is probably ten times more complex and difficult than the situation was in Iraq, due to terrain and a thorny cultural layout. And I hope that President Obama does the right thing and sets our country on a course for a departure and sets Afghanistan on a course for sustained success.

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