A Surge in Afghanistan? Where’s the Change I Can Believe In?

Something was different about watching Obama on TV Tuesday night. For the first time, instead of feeling inspired and uplifted by Obama’s words, I felt angry, frustrated and disappointed. I could hardly believe this was the same man who’s earlier speeches moved me to tears and filled me with pride. (I clearly wasn’t the only one, check out this article in Reuters). What bothered me most was that I felt like I was watching a speech that could have been delivered by our last President. Where is the change I can believe in?

While I recognize that the current situation in Afghanistan is complicated and that Obama faces a tough decision, I don’t believe sending 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan is the answer.

We need real change, right here at home.  Too many are facing this holiday season without health care, jobs or the knowledge that they will be able to pay the mortgage come the first of the year. The threat of al-Qaeda seems far away when the lenders are knocking on your door or you don’t have enough money for the medications you need next month.

Perhaps some of my anger also comes from my recent trip to the Middle East where I listened to Iraqi after Iraqi talk about how their life was forever changed by the United State’s War in Iraq. Many are now refuges as a direct result of their assistance to the US military. More troops in Afghanistan means more Afghans who will be needed to serve in support roles. It means more interpreters, more drivers, more barbers, cooks and janitors.  This means more people who will be targeted by militia, and victim of violence. Obama’s decision further aggravates an already serious refugee problem.

Nor does it seem to make things better for the Afghan people who stay in Afghanistan. Instead of convincing American that this is not another Vietnam, I’d be interested in hearing how the exit strategy he is proposing now avoids the pitfalls that resulted after the end of the CIA’s covert operations in that country in 1987. Thomas Friedman’s Op-Ed in the Times this weeks argues, “The reason there are so many frustrated and angry people in the Arab-Muslim world, lashing out first at their own governments and secondarily at us — and volunteering for “martyrdom” — is because of the context within which they live their lives. That was best summarized by the U.N.’s Arab Human Development reports as a context dominated by three deficits: a deficit of freedom, a deficit of education and a deficit of women’s empowerment.” It was not made clear to me how Obama’s plan addresses any of these deficits.

And then there is the cost of this decision to our troops and their families. Obama noted that many of the troops for the surge in Afghanistan will come from the draw down in Iraq. That means that soldiers will go from one deployment to yet another in a new country. Many of these soldiers are already on a second or third deployment. Sending them again adds stress and stain to our soldiers. Enough is enough.

As Obama said Tuesday night, "it's easy to forget that when this war began, we were united... I refuse to accept the notion that we cannot summon that unity again." I don’t disagree with him. But I can't be united with him on this.